An Ed To Face
by AmarieC
Summary: READ THIS STORY! Hopefully that works. A sad, sad novel of death, responsibility, revenge, the fine line of sanity, suicide, love, and letting go of the past. But this is all hard, after all hell broke loose in the Culdesac seven years ago....
1. How could this have happened?

An Ed to Face

**Synopsis: **A sad, sad novel of death, responsibility, revenge, the fine line of sanity, suicide, love, and letting go of the past. But this is all hard, after all utter hell broke out in the Cul-de-sac seven years ago...

**Note: **To completely understand this story, please read "Peach, Ach Creek" and "E verses K". As usual, you don't have to read them in order to comprehend this story, because I will explain as we go through this, but I think it would be best, so you're not guessing and jolted everywhere. That's what happened to my spaghetti legs and look... I can't put them back right.

**Note #2: **This story will have an extreme plot twist ending, so beware, and try your best to figure out what this plot twist is. Another thing, this story will get extremely sad and weird, and I've included every character in the show in this story. Please review the story; I don't like updating for blind eyes. Oh, and I'm loyal, so don't worry about me cutting this story off halfway.

**Note #3: **There will be a whole bunch of flashbacks in this story, and they will be italicized.

**Rating: **This story is rated T for self-inflicted violence, moderate gore, adult content, violence, and a massive dose of angst and darkness.

Chapter One

"How Could This Have Happened?"

_"How could this have happened?" he thought when the verdict finally sunk far enough into his mind. He heard Ed's parents crying, Johnny's mother weeping; Edd's parents starting out of the broad room coldly. Marie stood next to him, sniffling; he saw her mother staring in a crippled fixation. Her cousins were angry, crying their eyes to pieces. He looked at the one next to him especially, sighing heavily. Nazz and Kevin silent, terrorized, with not a blink of the eye. And last of all, he saw Johnny's sick and distressed expression. He felt the pain gripping his heart and tears sting his eyes. He looked around at the stone interior, white and black tile, and bright windows of that courthouse, which did not seem to give in enough light. His ears were pricked by the sound of the handcuffs being slapped onto Johnny's wrists. In the heavy deliberations of this case, there was illegal drug possession, the giving of drugs to a minor, two counts of involvement in murder, and only one blame for all. Johnny gave Sarah that coke, he told her about Edd's fiance, told Rolf that Lee was alone... Eddy knew there was more. And now the survivors and the victims wept. His punishment was not sufficient. Sure he was most certainly a madman, but a plead of insanity? Where was the justice? Where was the peace?_

The drive was long. It gave him time to think quietly though, time to remember, but he didn't want it. Once he thought about it though, it wasn't such a long drive. To him, driving a million miles would be a short drive when it came to her. She made him reminisce; it hurt so much.

_He sat in the passenger's seat, his mother bitter, quiet. He knew why his mother would be so bitter, the girl that sat in the back seat, reminding her of her son's mistakes and her own weak points as a parent. Eddy turned to the back seat where Marie sat, with a hand on her abdomen. No one wanted anything to do with those two anymore, if Eddy wasn't so remorseful for what he had done, wishing he could undo it, trying to make amends for it. He even was asking Marie to marry him, even though she seemed distant, cold, and unwilling. He tried to smile at her, yet he couldn't be happy. The car passed telephone poles with missing person signs posted on them. It hurt that teenager to look at them; however, he could not ignore the multitude of them. It was like a smack in the face, consecutively, over and over. He looked at the pictures on those papers, two were on them, one of a yellow-skinned, dopey boy with a unibrow and the other of a blonde girl, equally dopey. Eddy closed his eyes tightly, hoping it would all go away. He had believed he would see his beloved friend again when those flyers had first been posted. But now, with the papers falling and fading, he was starting to doubt. He bit his nails as he tried to refrain from thinking about what could have happened to his friend. _

He squinted and almost began to cry. He gasped hard, breaking the solitude of the car. Each yellow line that seemed to pass him made him closer, he couldn't wait. Turning to the left, he got off the freeway and into the small airport parking lot. This lot was large however, and empty. Up front, Beckon was nothing like Chicago, so he had no trouble coming up close to the terminal. As soon as the car bounced into a stop, the passenger door was opened and a woman draped in black looked in. She threw her luggage in the open trunk and got in, Eddy driving off at the sound of the door snap. She had to open it again and slam it shut since the first time wasn't sufficient. Not a word was spoken by either one of them. Old, close friends seeing each other for the first time in five years didn't say anything. Eddy looked at her, studying her features, attire, and face until she looked back. He kept looking back at the road then at her as she stared hard. She noticed his clothing first, a forest green shirt and dark jeans. His face was smooth, he had a mellow complexion, and a caring, heart broken stare. It seemed that the only physical property that had not changed about him was those three strands of hair on the top of his- her heart almost jumped at the sight she perceived, he had hair. A smile crawled up his face at that subtle movement. She had not changed much, except for the blue streaks through her long brown hair, and all the darkness, black pants and bell sleeved shirt and her old blue boots. At least he thought they were the same from their childhood. He admired her curvy, yet lanky figure. As always, he enjoyed just looking at her, and his eyes rode every curve. When he restrained himself, she frowned. He grinned back, and she pointed to the road.

He pulled up in front of a small house in a rural area. It was a dirty white and very charming. The closest neighbor was a quarter mile down and behind the house was a vast, hilly field with few trees to interrupt the view down. He got of the car and drove his key into the trunk lock. Lifting the door, he took out two suitcases and a bag. He thought she had packed a lot; this was good, it meant she'd stay longer. He heard the car door shut and saw her standing there, ready to lug the bags. He stepped forward and grasped her in his arms. Limply, she lay there, and then put her arms around him. Against the cold, damp day, they were warm together. He grasped her tighter, and kissed her forehead. Her lips lay on his cheek as she stretched her arms around his body more. A tear ran down his face as he heard her crying in his chest. They held the other there for eight minutes. She didn't use words to tell him how much she had missed him, how sorry she was for leaving the only 'Ed' she had left alone; she just let him tell by the way she held him and kissed his face.

"I missed you too," he replied, "I missed you so much."

_He could hear the screams coming from the basement. The darkness of the cellar was frightening, leaving an impression in his mind as he turned to Marie. She clenched her ears in her hands, tears filling the cracks of her grimacing, tight face. She kept her eyes closed, mumbling, moaning one word._

_"No... no, no...no..." His hands shook on her, one looming to her lower waist, holding her symbolically. As if he would protect the unborn baby growing inside of her. He heard the gasping shout of another person from the basement, saw Nazz run up the stone steps of the cellar into the sunlight of that dark day. He watched her run to a tree and almost fall over. Rolf was running to the front yard... Lee's cousin following, trying to tear him to pieces for what he had done. "No, no... no... no..." Marie's lips trembled as she continued to shut out the world with her fingers drove up her ears. He could smell the stench coming from the basement, the darkness of the door a massive, haunting hole, letting out evil, letting out death. Marie looked up from the crippled stance she was in to him, her face soaked in her own bodily fluids. "Where's Lee?" She asked horribly with a raspy voice. He glared at her, not moving. There was an answer to give, an answer so close... But this was her sister, her sister Lee, who was all powerful and tough as long as her sisters were with her. But since she had fought with Marie over Eddy, and no one knew where May was at this moment, Lee had been vulnerable, all alone. And Rolf had taken advantage of this, for something they would later understand as a sacrificial ceremony, one of the many evils of his old country. "Where's Lee?" He looked into the eyes of his lover, his heart beating the wall of his chest, the smell of the cellar choking the air in his lungs out. They heard shouting from the front, Nazz yelling at Lee's cousin to stop beating Rolf, that it wasn't worth it. They ran to the front, just it time to see Rolf escape his hands and run into the road, where Kevin was coming down the street in his car at an abnormal speed. He didn't see Rolf in the way..._

As soon as they entered the house, they felt the warmth. He shut the abnormal cold out and his eyes wandered around for his...

"Heah Eddy, is this her?" A tall man with a mustache that matched his sparse red hair came into the living room and smiled at his roommate.

"No, it's Barry White, I found him wandering around!" He answered with a laugh. The man stepped up to the two friends. "Veronica, Kevin, I reintroduce ya'." Kevin looked at their guest carefully, then at Eddy.

"Man, it's been a while." He could see memories coming up in his own mind, the ones he was trying so hard to forget. Guilt from an accident he could not prevent flowed through his troubled heart. Eddy saw this, and sighed.

"How 'bout we give her a tour of the house?"

Kevin shut off the burner, and then turned to Eddy with a smiling face.

"I'm sorry guys, the rice burnt."

"Not the good pan!" Eddy laid a knife beside chopped peppers to rush over to the stove. "AHHH!!" Veronica heard him yell as she sat at the counter that sat in the center of the small kitchen with four barstools around it. She couldn't help but smile humorously. "Kevin this was our only good pot. Now what?" he asked looking up at him.

"I say we order pizza," he answered mystically, strolling over to the refrigerator and analyzing all the pizza place magnets with a hand on his chin.

"Then you're picking it up!" Eddy answered, throwing the pot in the garbage bin with an awful odor coming from it. Veronica waited to say it, but they weren't noticing it, so she spoke up.

"Eddy the pan will melt the plastic trash bag."

"Oh great," he mumbled, picking the pot out of the bin and setting it in the sink. He turned around to see Kevin leaning on the table.

"Eddy's not really good with the cooking thing either."

"Yeah I am!" He lashed defensively.

Kevin looked at the clock between bites of pizza, then at Eddy. He smirked, recalling what they had just been talking about.

"What?" Eddy asked him, dealing the each of them five cards.

"Well, you two knew Ed the best, did he have an illness?"

He shook his head, "He didn't have an illness, he was just kind of slow," he said looking at his cards, planning his moves.

"But he was always... spacey. You never noticed it?" He glanced at Veronica as Eddy's head went down, all color out of his face.

"Was? He might still be 'spacey', you don't know, now do you?" He answered a bit hurt. Kevin studied him in a sort of awkward state. Did he really believe Ed was still alive? Veronica exchanged glances with Kevin as Eddy proceeded to deal them new cards and pick up the discards. He hid his sighing, and the liquid his eyes held by keeping his head down. They became quiet, at a disagreement with such a topic. The clock ticked around the short hand pointing on the bold two of the face. Eddy tried to ignore the, trying to continue the game. "I open with ten." Kevin folded, but Veronica threw in two chips. "Raising me eh?" Eddy snickered, with his roommate watching carefully. "I raise you ten." Throwing in two more chips, she looked to her now nonexistent stack of chips. Eddy's eyebrows rose. Kevin watched them stare each other down, laying their hands down. "Throw in your bra and go all in." Kevin put a hand on his head, mumbling something.

"Oh no," he shook his head, although he thought it was getting interesting. Veronica blushed, putting a hand on her bra strap and pulling it into view just to tuck it back under her shirt.

"Well okay," Eddy shrugged it off, and their eyes fell to their hands. He looked away from his flush to her... "STRAIGHT!?" She laughed aloud. He stared at her with an evil eye. "Rematch."

"Not for me, it's two. I've got to work tomorrow. Goodnight." Kevin stood and made his way to the hall in the living room. She smiled at him as he left.

"Night," Eddy hollered with his annoying voice, however, it had matured slightly. But slightly. He turned to a teasing Veronica who was handing him the deck. She lost her smile as he spoke. "I know you don't talk much anymore, but I really want to talk, about everything." She nodded, then proceeded to say what was on her mind.

"I don't understand it. You and Kevin were worst enemies, and now you are friends?"

He smiled, "A lot has changed."

"I've noticed," she patted his head jokingly, "You know, I have to go back to New York in three weeks."

"Maybe I can convince you to move back," he said plainly.

It was his idea really. But he was afraid to go. The frailty inside him unearthed every once in the while. This was something he felt he couldn't deal with. The distant memory haunted him enough, he didn't need new and vivid visions to kill him. However, he decided he needed to take it. He could not run from his life. He pulled his blue clunker up to a house but dared not go into the empty driveway. This was Veronica's fault. She had driven the desire to visit the Cul-de-sac in him. He was alone on this trip; she was doing other visiting in a taxi. Eddy got out of his car and stared at the house. It was the most familiar of all he'd ever seen. Clenching his teeth and fists, he would walk up the driveway, pavement, and knock on the door, ring the doorbell. His finger felt as if it had been smashed as he pressed the button. He heard someone coming to the door, but looked over to the beginning of the street. That house with the three glass paned door... he knew it well. He wished their son still lived there. The door opened; an average heighted man with glasses, light brown hair, and wrinkles stood at the door. But now Eddy stood at the end of the driveway looking down at a green, spiky piece of plastic, half covered in dirt. A few feet away was a doll head, weathered and grey. No one had picked them up; it would have burned to do so. It had happened so fast, they were such good kids. In a short time it came. The one had become homicidal and full of cocaine, until she died herself. And now her black heart rot in a grave. Mr. and Mrs. Miller could not bury their son though, he was probably dead. He had gone looking for May, the heart that, surprisingly, matched his own. For seven years they had been missing. What were the chances of them... were they dead or alive? No one wanted to care anymore, but they did. Oh, how they wanted peace. Peace that didn't seem would ever come. Eddy looked to the man in the doorway finally.

"Eddy?"

He smiled bitter sweetly, "Yes." They walked into the house and into a large living area. They sat down, Mr. Miller staring at him.

"I heard Veronica was back. She didn't come with you?" he seemed a bit anxious.

"No, she's doing some visiting."

"Where's your wife?"

"In the kitchen." Eddy now remembered why Mr. Miller might be anxious about Veronica seeing his wife...

_A funeral home, he had been crying too much to see details of the place, thus not remembering any. The service was over when he had noticed Ed's mother sitting in the back. The woman was staring ahead with a broken heart. Mrs. Miller had apologized to Edd's parents so remorsefully. How do you apologize for giving birth to the murderer of a person's son? She was mourning herself. And how do you apologize to the finance of your daughter's victim, a victim of her, herself? Mrs. Miller approached her son's best friend Eddy who had his arm around Veronica. They were walking out of the room now when she confronted them. _

_"Eddy? Veronica?" she asked. I ask again, how do you apologize to the best friends of your daughter's victim? They turned toward her, both their eyes red from crying. The tears flowed down their faces with every thought of him. _

_"Yeah?" Eddy responded, "Yes Mrs. Miller?"_

_"I'm sorry," she said quietly. Veronica just cried harder, as Eddy tried to be strong, tried to think of what he could do with his life now. "My Sarah was so stubborn..." _

_"Mrs. Miller, don't take this wrong, but your daughter wasn't stubborn, she was heartless, cruel, STUPID!" Veronica yelled, "You couldn't tell something was wrong with her? She slit my throat for crying out loud! You didn't freakin' punish her? WHY did she get away with it so she could take him from us? He didn't deserve to die!" She screamed in a rage. Mrs. Miller was in shock. "He was the first boy I ever kissed and he was supposed to be the last! Do you see this?" She held up her trembling hand to reveal an engagement ring. "He was my finance, I LOVE HIM!" Mrs. Miller slapped her impolite mouth. _

_"Shut up you slut! I know what you were doing with him at the time! You're not innocent missy! I lost my own baby girl and my son is missing! You aren't the only one! I've tried to apologize, **I** didn't kill him!" Eddy saw his friend step forward with her fists ready for a hit, so he quickly grabbed both her arms, just for her to try to pull away. _

_"I haven't done anything wrong! You have, YOU let her kill him. And that is just as bad. You let her!" Veronica fought his restraint to hold her back from getting at Mrs. Miller, "YOU LET HER!"_

Eddy looked at Mr. Miller with a sigh, "How's she been?"

"Fine, as good as she can. She stopped going to the police station last week," he answered, glancing to the kitchen. His tired face gleamed with misery. "I'm sorry Eddy. I know you were good friends with Ed and Edd, but there isn't anything we can tell you. It was just a mistake. I thought my little girl was good, I didn't think someone so young could do something like that. All I am now is... afraid for Ed. He was never the brightest boy; I can't imagine where he'd be now, or why he didn't come back. You know?" he paused, gasping for breath. He looked out the large window, "He doesn't even know that his sister is gone. He doesn't know how much we need him now. "

Through a gate with an unlocked padlock she went, folding her arms to keep warm as a nippingly cold breeze passed. She walked along the fence letting her arms now sway weakly at her side. A rose was clasped in her hand. She clenched it and the thorns pierced her palm. Ignoring the pain, she was busy staring at the grave she was in front of. A frown was on her face like a sign saying, "I hate you." Her mouth quivered. She stepped up to the flat faced stone and kicked it hard. Pain leapt through her foot and leg. She kicked it again and again. The request "DIE!" was in vain. She was already dead.

"Leave me peace, just give me it," she begged, "You've already done enough." She put her hand on her neck where it had been cut shallowly, and then her heart deeply. It had been gouged out. 1992-2006; if only she had died a year earlier, never had been born... The bitterness in her broken heart and selfish mind would not die. She blamed everything on the person whose body fertilized the grass beneath her feet, "Die!"

A buzzed head boy with pale skin for lack of sunlight, and light blue clothes sat at a table. He wrote things. Things that had gotten him in here. This is how he spent his afternoons, his evenings, his nights. But something was different today; he had a visitor. Suddenly, a man with dark brown hair, a stubby body, and a height of about five nine sat down opposite him. The teenaged boy would not look at his visitor, he knew who it was. He had not been told, but he knew. He felt the hatred the man put on him.

"What do you want to yell at me for what everyone else, including yourself, hasn't?" He saw a hand as it banged onto the metal table. The boy jumped, he hadn't heard such a loud noise in a while, not in this heavily protected institution room.

"Cut the crap Johnny."

"Well what do you want? You are the one, as it seems, 'pulling the crap'." Eddy grabbed his shirt collar and stood, holding the boy over the table.

"Where's Ed you miserable beast?"

"You know I did help Sarah kill your friend, and Lee, and eventually Rolf. Oh yes, I had plans for you too, but I did not hurt Ed. Myself, no. Did I make him disappear? No. That just came with Lee and Marie's fighting over **you**, which made May run away." Eddy shook him violently until everyone in the room at the other tables were staring at him.

"Don't you try to blame this one me! Where is he!?" he shouted. Johnny tried to gain back his composure.

"I don't know! It just seems one problem makes so many more."

Another grave. This was too mellow dramatic. They were cousins, enemies, and worlds apart. So many problems she had caused in her lifetime, however, petty compared to these. She was missed, by everyone, as a sign that everything was over.

Lee Kanker

1988-2006

Her feet were hesitant as she reached the last grave on her mind. The rose still clenched in her hand all the way across this empty cemetery. She could not stop her tears, she could not control them. Her feet wanted to run to him, but all she found was it. There, quietly sitting among the grass and short weeds. The words engraved in the tombstone were engraved in her memory. Her fist clenched that rose harder and blood matching the redness of the petals filled the cracks of her fist and dripped to the ground. The ring on her other hand almost burned her. She gasped, looking at the grave again, crying harder and harder.

"Why did you shield me?" She asked; wind blew her hair and she jumped in surprise. Looking behind her, her eyes lingered to see what wasn't there. No one was there. Eyes on the grave again, she studied the name in the stone admiringly, as a preteen girl looks into the eyes of her new crush. "Oh, Double D, I want you to come back to me." She knew he couldn't hear her, or feel her, and she knew she couldn't bring him back. Veronica took off her engagement ring and rolled it in her fingers. "I still love you more than any person on this whole planet." She sniffled and knelt down on the ground. Gently, she laid the bloody rose by the tombstone of her heart and future. "It's not fair," she sobbed, sliding her ring back on.

"I love you."His voice played back in her mind.

_"I know it would it be a while before we actually could, but I want to know Veronica. Would you marry me?" _

Her eyes blurred.

"Ah, she's crying." She jumped at the familiar voice and looked to the right. There stood two people next to the edge of the cemetery, yards away. The shorter was a girl in a light blue t-shirt and red shorts. Her blonde hair was stiff in the wind, if unaffected. One of her hands was placed on a tall and husky boy's chest. He was wearing a red and white striped shirt with a green jacket over dark jeans. An immensely friendly and innocent smile was on his face as he gave the girl an Eskimo kiss. She giggled, both of them turning to the troubled woman some distance away, staring at them in disbelief. She looked on, a tear trespassing her eyelids and falling down her face. She heard footsteps behind her and jumped, looking in every direction, her hands flailing everywhere. Then she ended up hitting a body.

"Ow!" Eddy yelled. She stopped and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry Eddy, are you alright?"

"Yes," he glared at the disgruntled girl; her hair covered her tears and stuck to her face. "I figured I pick you up, save some money on the taxi." He stepped right at her and pushed the hair in her face behind her ears. He looked at the tears and smiled. "Why do you hide what I know you're doing?"

"Why do you hold them in?" Both of them knew there was some fault to that comment.

"Did you see Ed and May?" He asked as he put an arm around her. They stared at Edd's grave sadly. Tears began to form in Eddy's eyes for the wind to dry them gently.

"Yes."

If you are wondering what is going on, or why certain characters aren't involved in the present action yet, you will find out in the next chapter. Review please.


	2. The Two That I Love

**An Ed to Face**

Thanks for that first review Fanof'Da'EdBoys, it means a lot since I know you review many stories on this site. There is going to be seven chapters in this story, and it's gonna be really agnsty. I hope that the continuance of this story will answer all the questions set forth in the first chapter, but if there is anything I leave in the dark, I rely on the reader to fill in the blanks.

**Chapter Two**

"The Two That I Love"

"No, not yet, I just got to sleep." Eddy sat up in bed and looked at his annoying alarm clock. He yawned and dug the forming crust out of his dark brown eyes. There, plainly on his clock, was the time: eight sharp. He blacked out as he stood and went to his door, holding onto the doorknob for a minute to regain his sight. Opening it, he stepped out into the hallway. He could already hear the shower running and Kevin's not-so-deep voice singing terribly. Almost asleep, he remembered his guest and went to the small guest bedroom. The door was locked, so he knocked. A lump lay under the bed; reluctantly she got out and put on a housecoat, tying it so nothing was visible for Eddy's greedy eyes. She opened the door yawning. "Why did you lock the door?"

"I don't trust Kevin," she looked at his boxers, and then rolled her eyes. He reached in for a morning kiss. Backing up, she smiled slyly, "In your dreams Eddy."

"How did you know?" He let slip out before he turned down the hallway to the kitchen. There he got out a box of chunky puffs habitually. You don't grow out of everything.

_It had been a year since Veronica left Peach Creek, and a month since Marie left him. She had made him give her all his money, and now he worked at a fast food restaurant, and had just been evicted. He had no place to go. His parents wouldn't take him in. So he sat out back, behind the restaurant after work. The sun was running to the horizon of buildings and trees, and the stretch of highway behind the restaurant and beyond the fence was adorned with cars. He could hear those cars go by, as his only company. The lights in the restaurant went off as the manager closed up. He had never liked the manager, but lately this manager was taking pity on him. He didn't like pity either. But as he looked down on himself, with his work uniform and the dumpsters so near, and the fact that he had no one to his name, he understood that pity was the only feeling he could provoke. He sighed heavily, his chest rising and falling in his apron. The back door opened, and the manager came out with a black bag of trash. He just looked at the ground, not wanting to notice the manager, as he heaved the trash in the dumpster which was giving off a smell that wasn't wanted. He looked at his feet, as he sat there on the back step. Crap, the manager was staring at him; he could feel it and see his two large feet pointing at him. He sniffled. And went back to the door, but stood lingering on the step as well, next to Eddy. _

_"Do you have a ride?" He started out slowly. Eddy looked up to his boss, Kevin Lancome, with a shameful, humbled face. Kevin saw that there was no pride in his face, something that almost made him gasp. Eddy was the egotistic kid on the block, taking advantage of anyone for his own personal gain, and now, he was poor, no friends, no family, no home. The tables had been turned over, spilling their contents. He didn't want to answer Kevin, the answer, "I have nothing." He looked down at him sadly, awkwardly, "Do you have a ride Eddy?"_

_"No," he moaned, wiping his running nose. The cold nipped the both of them as it swept through the alleyway. _

_"I saw you out here last night," he said as slow as before, in a confession, "You don't have any place to go?"_

_"No, happy?" Eddy snapped lowly, knowing Kevin was enjoying this. _

_"Yes," he started, offended by his coworker, "Because I've been trying to find a roommate. There's this great lot out in the country, three bedrooms, going cheap 'cause no one wants it. I don't understand why no one would want it, something about the last owner. Welp, it's a good house, but I can't find a roommate to help pay the rent. That's why I'm happy." Eddy was confused, even startled and unbelieving. _

_"You're asking me?"_

_"I'm telling you dude," he held out his hand, "Com'on, get up, you can stay at my house for the night, then I can show you the house on Saturday."_

He sat at his desk and looked around. Three walls surrounded his tiny work space. A list of names belonging to complete strangers lay pinned to the wall against his desk. He stood from his chair to see over the walls; around him were fifty-nine other cubicles. Eddy looked ahead at a face. A girl with black hair, brown eyes, and a button nose stared at him smiling.

"Eddy!" She whispered from the wall against the buzzing and ringing of busy people. Then her face was gone and like a shark he saw her head bob from over the walls closer to him. She came into his office smiling playfully at him.

"Hi," Eddy greeted, looking around to make sure a certain someone wouldn't see him. He focused on her, this girl named Rita. A mini skirt and tight tee showed off her skinny figure. She'd blow over, it seemed. Eddy and her talked, more like flirted, a lot and knew each other quite well. There was just one problem, Eddy wasn't interested.

"A friend of mine is having a party in two weeks. Would you like to go?"

"I don't know, you know that my friend's over for a while..."

"Yeah, I know," Rita said trying to be as bubbly as before, "But if you want to, you can bring your friend. Just call me." A smile climbed up her face, "Oh, but remember I don't want to buy any car insurance." She slipped out of the cubicle and an older man came in.

"Eddy you're on door to door," the man handed him the binder in his strong hand and looked at him sternly with his green-grey eyes. He then looked on to where Rita had gone and back to Eddy. "My daughter was talking to you?"

"Yeah," he answered looking at the binder.

"Well, you can be nice, but leaver her alone," he replied with an order in his tone.

"Let me be frank Carl, I'm not interested in your daughter, not one bit." Eddy tried not to be agitated. The man didn't say it, he didn't have to: Eddy knew his boss did not like him.

"Get going."

He strolled up to a butter colored house with blue shutters on every window. He knew the nice looking houses held the nastiest people. He made sure he looked professional in his clip-on tie and briefcase in hand. Ringing the doorbell after he found it, Eddy braced himself. An old man came to the door, sucking on a cigar. Old was an understatement to him, this man was museum exhibit. He puffed, and blew smoke in his face.

"Good morning sir. I work with Tel-Star incorporated and as a part of our expansion in sales, I've come out to tell all our most important customers about the savings that Cancare Insurance has to offer..."

"I have been called by you people thirty times in the past year and have never bought a thing. So how can I be one of your best customers?" Eddy blinked repeatedly, gawking.

The house was unusually hot. The summer heat had kicked back in suddenly and so the house was an unattended furnace. Eddy looked to his phone's receiver where it was flashing a little red light. He pressed the 'messages' button and went to the fridge.

**"Hi Eddy. It's Marie, I got your message. Call me when you can. I'll be around between two and six."** The phone beeped; he came back over to it with a milk mustache and erased the message. Picking up the phone, he dialed a familiar number. The phone rang a few times but an answer came in time.

"Hello." "I know." "She's fine." "I called to ask if Benny could visit." "Oh." "Listen Marie, he's my son too!" He shouted in the phone speaker. "You might not, but I do!" "Please," he sighed, "I know I don't deserve to, but please." "I sent the money." "Uh huh." "Thanks." "Bye." Eddy put the phone down and wiped his face and eyes. He turned around and saw Veronica staring at him sadly.

"Hi," they both said.

"He's coming over tomorrow," Eddy said with excitement in his voice.

"Marie might be the way she is, but it's your fault if you still feel guilty for something you didn't do." She could plainly see he was unhappy. He nodded.

"It's not just that V, work sucked."

"What happened?" She asked.

"Do you remember Rita? I told you about her." A jealous look fell on her face as he moaned.

"Yes."

"And that she's into me and her dad is my boss?"

"Uh huh," she laughed now, remembering his past predicaments.

"Her dad hates me and that's why he put me on salesman duty today. He gave me the impossible people! I couldn't sell anything to anyone. There was even a woman with a rifle." She laughed all the more. "Yeah, that is kind of funny," Eddy admitted, "But I'm not interested in his daughter and he still is watching me."

"Somebody should tell him to get a life." Then it was quiet as they stood there in the kitchen adjoining the living room, feet apart. "Why don't you like her?"

"I don't know. She's not my type."

"Trashy isn't your type?" She joked. He frowned at her, but soon forgot it to smile.

"I like somebody else," he answered in realization, turning her away.

"Hi," she looked coldly at her cousin.

"Hi Veronica," Marie tried to smile, but stood awkwardly as she always did around her, almost guilty. She shut the door and looked at her, "How've you been?"

"Fine," she answered, hearing laughs from another room.

"Me too," she looked down, dressed up as if she was going somewhere. Her hair was dark blonde, her natural hair color from the past blue, and she had a curvy figure with wide hips, being quite tall to even it out. She wore heavy make-up, trying to hide the discolorment in her eyes. She had turned out much like the rest of the Kanker family, a druggie, useless to society. Of course, she had done a good job of hiding it from her son, but everyone else knew.

"Can I see him?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, he's all packed to go," she answered, leading her to the first door in a short hallway. Through the door, to a little boy with dark brown hair who sat on the brown, stained floor surrounded by toys, they went. The two action figures in his hand were fighting each other and he provided the sound effects. "Benny?" Marie called. The boy turned to his mother and a woman that was only familiar to him from so many pictures he had seen. Veronica hadn't seen him since he was one years old.

"Hi!" He waved, getting off the floor and looking shyly at the pale woman.

"Hello," she answered, almost equally shy. She smiled at the boy as he just stared.

"Benny," Marie looked down at the three foot tall boy and said, "Do you remember all those stories I told you about your second cousin?"

"That's her," the boy pointed.

"Yeah, she's going to take you to see your dad okay?" The boy's face grimaced. "It's okay, she's very nice so you don't have to worry."

"Okay," the boy smiled at his all-innocent mother.

"Now I'll see you on Sunday," she picked him up, hugging him.

"Yes mommy," he kissed her face and she put him down. Veronica took up a heavy backpack and followed Marie and Benny back to the compact living area. Marie grabbed her purse from the ground and they went out of the apartment building. There were cars parked along the street but they went to a taxi that was parked up front with engine running. Benny sat in with the door open and looked to his mom. "Bye."

"Bye baby," Marie then turned to Veronica.

"When I come by to drop him off, I'll visit longer."

Marie smiled a bit, going to the sidewalk with her cousin where the boy couldn't hear, "Okay." The two stared at each other for a moment. "I never thanked you for what you did."

"I didn't do it for you Marie. I knew that boy before he was born, I saw him in a dream. I don't know how... But I saw him. I couldn't understand it, but I loved him. I never thought I could love a person that was not even born." Veronica could feel tears in the back of her lids, swelling.

"Well thanks," they were quiet again. "Oh, I need to be going," Marie looked away, "Bye."

"Bye." Marie walked off to her car as the taxi drove off.

_Speeding down the road, she slammed the breaks, then the gas, then the steering wheel with her fist. How could she get there fast enough? She wished she could have the police chase her cousin down. They could go through these freakin' stop lights. She banged her dashboard, then frantically stomped on the gas as the light switched. Why couldn't she find a police car or payphone on the way to call the police? Then she remembered the facts. They wouldn't help her. What Marie was going to do was legal, what she might already have been doing as Veronica rushed to the clinic. She ran out of her car, it pulled in front of other cars in the parking lot. It was still running, the door open. She ran to the revolving door and continued until she was stopped b the clerk's counter. _

_"Can I help you?" The clerk asked, startled at the bang. _

_"Shut up!" She yelled, tears flowing down her eyes. People stared at her. The brown haired, slim, depressed teen ran to a corridor. _

_"Get back here!" The clerk demanded. She grabbed the phone and dialed 911. Veronica ran as fast as she could interpret the information of the faces in the rooms she passed. She was continually gawked at and now had to male doctors chasing her. Finally, at the end of the white hall, she found a face she recognized lying on a bed in a hospital gown. She was given an immediate response._

_"Veronica, what are you DOING HERE?!" Marie did not sit up as a doctor turned to the panting and raging girl. _

_"What are YOU doing here?" She screamed back at her cousin. _

_"Excuse me, you cannot be in here. I'm performing an operation."_

_"MURDER!" Veronica shoved past him and set Marie up, "What are you thinking? This is your baby's life!"_

_"My baby, my body Veronica! Eddy raped me..."_

_"Even if he had, you still have no right. What is worse? Rape or murder of someone who has not ever gotten a chance to do anything wrong yet? The being that is growing healthily inside you! It is sick. Eddy didn't rape you though. You manipulated him into believing that because YOU felt guilty about what YOU did WITH him! You tempted him! Sure he was perverted, but you should have said no and not have put him in a situation to take you in his home!"_

_"Get out!" The doctor grabbed her hands. They heard sirens form outside faintly. _

_"It's my decision Veronica!"_

_"What if your mother had aborted you?" Veronica struggled to get free from the man, then cops pulled her out of the room. Marie sat on the bed, her bare legs numbed by the cold atmosphere of the clinic, thinking. The doctor looked at her nervously. _

_She looked down at her knees, tears almost in her eyes, "I'm sorry."_

Eddy entered his kitchen, tied from another day of work. He saw Benny and Veronica playing cards at the counter.

The boy turned to the door, "Daddy!" He ran over to him, hugging his stout legs. He picked him up and held him tightly.

"Hi Benny Bones," this was what Benny found hilarious in being called. Veronica smiled at Eddy and he put him down. "What are you guys doing?"

"Gig fummy," he answered proudly; his father laughing in amusement.

"Gin Rummy," Veronica corrected.

"Oh yeah, gig fummy," Been smiled at his dad, then went to the other room, coming back with a glass jar. There was a piece of paper taped to it. He handed it to his dad with his arms outstretched so he could read the words on it, written in sloppy and inexperienced handwriting, 'Sare Gar'. "Why isn't there money in it?"

"Because I haven't been swearing," Eddy smiled with Benny grinning back.

He tucked Benny in his bed and pushed some sloppy hair off his forehead.

"Then we ran home," he finished one of Benny's favorite allegories from his childhood. His son laughed, squirming in bed. "Go to sleep now, otherwise you'll be crank when we go to the park tomorrow, just like last time."

"I screamed so foud!" Benny replied.

"Yeah, and we were kicked out by that one guy," Eddy kissed his forehead and stood from the bed.

"Wheng are you voing to sleep? You vet cranky too."

"Soon," he shut off the above light, "Goodnight."

"Leave the doora open, Ricky is rooking for me."

"Alright," Eddy answered, amused since he was still afraid of the imaginary 'Ricky'. He left the room after Benny said goodnight and ran right into Veronica. She smiled at him admiringly. "Eavesdropping again?"

"Shh," she took his hand and brought him into the living room. There Kevin was watching television; he looked as if he was minding his own business.

"What are you smiling at me like that for?" Eddy asked.

"You never act like that," she smiled all the more.

"Oh that," his face turned red, and he couldn't help but give her an alarmed, and uncalled-for smile. She then left for the kitchen. He looked at stationary Kevin and then at what he was watching. Kevin snickered under his face fur. "What?"

"Veronica is a different kind of woman, that's for sure. But there is one thing that all women love," he said, "And that's a man..."

"Duh Kevin, except for the uh... other kind of women."

"I wasn't finished, all women like a man being good to a kid." He laughed; Eddy frowned however, not wanting to believe him. "Can I borrow him sometime? Maybe I can get Sheridan wanting me again."

"I don't know." He glanced toward the kitchen then back at his roommate, "She does like me, doesn't she?"

"Don't get too full of yourself," he answered, rolling his grey eyes, "Of course she likes you. How can you ignore the way the looks at you, and man she likes to touch you," he sat forward with hands clasped together, "She cringes when you touch her Eddy, I've only seen you guys together for a week now, and man, ask her out!"

"You know it's more complicated than that," he was annoyed with the dead facts that he had been trying to ignore.

Kevin looked at the floor for a second, "No it's not. He's been dead for seven years." Eddy glared at him angrily, then went to the hallway again and slammed the bathroom door shut behind him, leaving Kevin to shrug and feel a bit guilty himself. He had changed over the years, from a smug jerk, to a broken man: having seen too much, having been guilty of too little, and having been scarred by the events that followed him everywhere. He watched Veronica come back into the room, looking down the hall after the slam.

"What's wrong with Eddy?" She looked at him inquisitively, worriedly. Kevin's eyebrows were low, and he adjusted his baseball cap to get some time to think before answering her. He pointed out a lanky finger.

"You need to talk to him," he ushered her off and went back to his television programming. She watched him, then the bathroom door, thinking.

"What if he wants to be alone?" She interrupted him, trying to find advice where she could only get it.

"Heah babe, you're the problem, go fix him," he mumbled half-conscious. She frowned at him uneasy, then went down the hall as quietly as she could, passing the room Benny was in, and knocked on the bedroom door with a weak fist. He opened the door, tears down his face in a nonflattering fashion. She stepped back, then pushed him aside gently and locked the door behind them. He sat down on the toilet lid, with his hands between his legs, watching them as if they were going to do something interesting any moment now. She watched him, her face completely white. She swallowed the stubborn saliva in her mouth, pushing it down her esophagus nervously.

"I heard what you and Kevin were talking about," she said bravely.

He closed his eyes and leaned back, completely overtaken in grief. He sighed pathetically, "Oh great." She stood there all the more uneasy, folding her arms tightly just under her breasts. He was afraid of what was to come, and waited impatiently.

"D..d..do you think I... love you in more than a platonic sense?" She asked, her legs shaking uncontrollably as well as her voice. He stared at her, his mouth open subtly, the fact of his tire filling his eyes. Oh, he was tired of this. He had been here before, and knew the answers, the ruses, the ploys, the excuses...

So he put on a joking face, hoping to get over with this juvenile game and go to bed, "A stud like me, who doesn't?"

This had angered her, "Stop it Eddy!" She shouted as loudly as she dared, turning her head away from him. They both felt bad, knowing the truth hurt, knowing the circumstances killed.

"You don't love me," he stated vainly. She sighed in disappointment at his words. She walked over to him, and stood up to his face. He stared at her body, then back into her painful eyes.

"I do love you Eddy."

He rolled his eyes, "But as a friend. I've heard you say this a million times. You don't need to tell me anymore," he mumbled. She grabbed his head, holding his face in both her hands. Leaning down, she placed her lips on his weakly. There was no strength, and she almost gave up, but pushed harder, getting him to move. He put his hands around her waist, pulling her in between his legs. She pressed into him, pushing his lips open. She held his face softly, and let tears fall down from her eyes. They both whined, so tired, so scared. She kept her eyes closed, with surprise in his wide orbs. He held her close, on the verge of crying in happiness, with her crying in pain. She let go, after so many quiet moments, and whispered into his face.

"I love you." He recognized this phrase, as something he had never heard said in such a manner. Then, as if a rising of the sun after a dark, long night of obscurity, with their faces wet, they smiled.

Eddy sat up in a full bed. Beams of orange, powerful light shown against the opposite wall to the window. He peered out the panes with the rising sun shining on him. He Got out of the covers in his boxers. Yawning, he almost blindly made his way to a bedroom door. Then he realized that this was his door, this as his bedroom, and that was his bed. He remembered he had left Veronica's room after an hour of lusty affections. He gave the bed another look. Benny lay in it, peacefully sleeping in a tiny lump. He smiled, scratching his head. He opened the door carefully and walked down the hall to the guest bedroom. Almost opening the door, he heard sobbing. Looking inside and at a crying Veronica, he shut the door behind him. She sat up in bed with her head in her knees, wearing only her undergarments, crying in a shirt. His or hers, he couldn't tell. When he reached the bed, she looked up at him in shame.

"What's wrong?" He sat in bed and put his warm hands on her smooth shoulders.

"I can't replace him with you," endless pools of tears streamed down her face. He slid next to her and held her close. Spreading her hair away from her ear, he put his head on her shoulder.

"You aren't," he whispered.

"Yes I am Eddy! We loved each other so much, I was almost...numb. And now I love you. That's replacing him!"

"No, no it's not Veronica. You said you'd always love him as he died. And it's true. You love him more than me, I know that. But I don't care, I'd feel guilty if I took your love from him." He rubbed her arms as she continued to cry. His own eyes began to liquefy again, "Do you remember his will? Double D wanted you to go on."

"I know, but..." she stopped, being checked by the tears. He kissed her shoulder gently and held her all the more tighter.

"You can't give me all your heart, and I can't give you my virginity. We're even baby. He wanted me to take care of you and he wanted you to move on and marry someone. Please. I love... you both, so much." She turned around and kissed him. She lay down and he in her arms with his head in her chest. He pulled a blanket up over them both, and squeezed himself closer to her.

"How did you become so sweet?" She smiled at him in the growing light of the room, her right hand adorning the side of his face with a light caress. And then he felt that she was wrong, since he had never considered himself of the sweet kind.

"I just love you, that's all."

Yeah, sure some of you might be thinking that Eddy having a relationship with both Marie and her cousin is sick, but, heah, I've heard of more disgusting things than that. Well, that really isn't a justification, because I've heard of grosser things than eating dog crap, doesn't make it any less appalling though. It just works okay? Please review. I'll update the next chapter, "Crash", soon. More questions should be answered, or asked. Thanks for tuning in.


	3. Crash

**An Ed To Face**

This chapter is a good example of writer's block, and you'll understand why at the ending of it. There is a secret that my story brings out about myself: I do think like a girl sometimes. But I trust that the readers of this story will keep this secret for me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and all its suspensefulness which isn't really a word, but I'll ignore the spell check on this one. I humbly ask that those who view this chapter and don't want to read it all or review (and I know there are some since the program tells you all the hits that the chapters receive) to please read it and review it. It doesn't take that long to write at least one sentence telling how you feel or what you think about the chapters you read. I know why some of you won't read this story, and this reason just makes me mad, because using OC's isn't that bad if they are used correctly and skillfully. But heah, if you want to review the story and complain, GO AHEAD! I don't care, just give me valid reasons for your hatred and not a bunch of prejudices. I've never gotten a flame or negative review before, you could be the first and break my heart. Thanks for your time.

Thank you to FanofDa'EdBoys for another great review, I'm glad you love the story. And the reason why Eddy couldn't go to his family for help when he was broke and evicted was because his family wanted nothing to do with him after he impregnated a fifteen year old Marie who he let take all his money. And the reason why Eddy's brother couldn't help him is... I guess, because he is in enough trouble of his own somewhere. I bet he's in military school or something. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask them all, I'll try to answer the best I can.

Copyright Note: Okay, obviously I do not own Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy or Lysol or anything else with a copyright on it for I am sixteen and not a millionaire. Are these copyright notices even neccesary or are they just used for those "Just in case" situations? Welp, people sue for anything these days.

**Chapter Three**

"Crash"

_Eddy strolled down the street, he had a list in his hands. It had milk and bananas on it in a quickly printed handwriting. Marie seemed to want more calcium in her diet as she got bigger. He was trying his best to grow closer to her and even proposed, twice. He wanted to make things right; he didn't make a mistake when he told her he loved her, he did, and would do anything for her. However, she seemed... well, he didn't know. He turned left and, as he passed his friend's house, he noticed her on the front porch, sitting on the cement steps. She had her face in her palms, hair blocking whatever she was doing from the sight of his eyes. He walked into her unkempt yard and approached the girl. _

_"Veronica?" She looked up at him immediately, almost scared, with red eyes. "Are you alright?" He knew she was miserable, but this was a comment for any changes in her state. _

_"Where's Ed?" She moaned, insulting her own, and his intelligence. He was stunned, hearing her voice comforted his weary soul. It gave him more hope for whatever normalcy he knew might come back. _

_"I don't know. Ed's parents still haven't heard from him," Eddy sighed, almost crying, "Marie hasn't heard from May." His eyes teared. Veronica looked up at him still, completely frozen, except for her weak ankles that wanted to let go and fall onto the sidewalk. _

_"Where is he? I need him right now!" She felt so helpless in this time of their lives. It had only been May when she felt on top of the whole world. She looked at her ring, it bringing her back to those days... Eddy stared at her as he bent down. It always felt good to hold her, but she never seemed to comfort him. It was as if she was only absorbed in her own agony. She drenched his clothes in tears. "How could this have happened?" Those words ate him alive. _

_"I don't know. It all happened so fast."_

_"I wish I had died! This isn't worth living for!" She cried. _

_"Don't say that. I wouldn't trade you for Double D," Eddy's stare intensified. He gripped her arms, trying anything to keep her in the same frame of mind as himself. _

_Veronica grasped his forearms, staring into his eyes with an anger of what words couldn't begin to describe, "But you wouldn't trade him for me!"_

_"Double D made his decision. We have to go with it."_

_"He was wrong Eddy!! He was wrong, I was too cowardly to do what he did!" This time was enough. Crying spell after crying spell, he had been strong. He comforted her and treasured her, not giving himself to mourn his own pain and confusion. He could not hold it any longer. This time he fell into her arms crying. She stared in an odd perplexity. _

_"I miss them so much!" He sobbed. Skin tight, she held him to her shoulder, cooing him like a child amidst a horrible nightmare. _

_"Don't worry, we will find Ed. But until then, we have each other."_

**I've fought to know his name. **

**Who's caused me so much pain.**

**I've struggled hard and all I got,**

**was my heart bloody stained.**

Back and forth, back and forth, descending and ascending, back and forth: Benny was quiet except for the words, "Higher daddy!" What a day it was, hot, but an occasional breeze relieved the figures in the lonely, woody park. Eddy watched Benny come back towards him on the swing and pushed him back into the air to get a vertical veiw of the blanket of tree boughs from above in all their green liveliness. Veronica glanced at Eddy as she swung on the swing next to Benny's.

"I'm voing higher than voo!" Benny laughed mischievously.

"No you're not," she replied tauntingly. Eddy smiled, pushing Benny harder to help him combat her. He was getting tired after half an hour of pushing the little boy, but he was enjoying himself. Which was why he refused offers to push him. She jumped off the swing, landing on the ground two feet away.

"Can I doo vat?" His little boy's eyes were gleaming in curiosity, he tried to look at his dad, slightly turning the path of the swing.

Eddy's eyes bugged, "No Benny, you might get hurt."

"Flease?"

He then looked at his friend, "If she catches you."

"Oh no, I'll drop him Eddy!"

"Don't try to say you're weak, heah, Benny tell her you don't weigh much."

"I'm as lighf as a pillow!" He pronounced the 'P" with difficulty, smiling.

She laughed, rolling her eyes at them, "Fine." Eddy pushed Benny slower as Veronica stood in front of him. "Ready Eddy?" She had asked the question, unwittingly taking him back. He remembered Edd's words, _"Ready Eddy?"_ This happened so much.

"Alright," he stammered weakly. Benny let go of the chains and was caught almost immediately.

Veronica set him down as he beamed an enlightened grin, "Vat was fun!"

"Yeah, I used to be the king of the swings," Eddy bragged.

"Really?" His son asked, the six-year-old's attention span having been pricked.

"But that was only because he was short," Veronica patted Eddy on the head. He growled, grabbing her waist.

"I bet I can still do it." He challenged, letting go of her and going to the swings.

Benny set an ice pack on his dad's ankle. He patted it down securely with his little fingers so it would not go anywhere.

"Thanks," Eddy mumbled as he sat in a chair with his leg propped up. Kevin smirked at him from the couch where has was slouching down with his feet on the coffee table, arm over head, and remote pointed to the television.

"Old man."

"I'm not! There was a hole in the ground."

"Yeah, I believe you," Kevin looked back at the TV, "Old man." Eddy narrowed his eyes at him, ready to pick a fight if he wasn't handicapped. Veronica came over, scratched Eddy behind the ear like a cat, and then sat on the arm of his chair. He purred over her affection; she was staring over at Kevin with troubled eyes. They hadn't seen him since the other night when he had been so understanding of their problems, understanding the problem more than they had.

"Can I have fe femote?" Benny asked, looking up at him from the floor.

"No," Kevin laughed a little. Then he looked at Benny's cute face with a sad, sad expression manipulatively plastered on it. Kevin slammed his hand on the table madly and shouted madly, "Fu..." Eddy glared at him, so he changed that word, "Man!" He made out calmly, so as not to scare the kid. He gave him the remote and went to the basement where the other television was. The two others looked at Benny, quite amused.

"Dad fought me vat one," the little boy changed the channel from the Miss America Pageant to Truck Wars. Veronica looked at snickering Eddy with a sly face.

"I'm sure he did." She leaned over to him and held him against her, "I need to go yell at Kevin for making us admit this..." She whispered, then made sure Benny's eyes were blankly on the television before she started caressing the side of Eddy's face with her mouth. He felt her tongue on his cheek softly but firmly. He watched her to the basement, then looked back at his son.

_Ed had tried not to get dirty that day, since his mother had bought him new shoes. And not only were they new shoes, but big, brown boots and he told Eddy, Double D, and Veronica that they were a size sixteen for his big feet. He seemed proud of this fact, and even prouder of his boots, since, if anyone knew boots, it was Ed. He had wanted to go to the dump and tread around, looking for supplies for a scam with his friends. But now, plans had to be changed. Eddy reluctantly gave them up, and they decided to go to the park and see what was happening. No one was there, and they played near the sandbox, talking about trivial things. Then they heard the neighborhood bully's bike horn, and looked to the road where Kevin was driving up, bored as it seemed, and wanting amusement where the stock was always fresh. They all eyed him curiously, nervously. He stood over his bike, gripping the handle bars in a way that said he wouldn't be staying long. He was just a foot from the sandbox where they sat, staring down at them smugly. Then he saw Ed's new boots._

_"Nice boots dork, trying to be Godzilla? Could follow your tracks from Missouri!" They tried to ignore that statement; Edd getting up the courage to attempt a friendly conversation from where he sat on the wooden frame. _

_"Hello Kevin, Ed received a very fine pair of boots from his mother today, and he is rather proud of them." He commented with a smile he had to force. But Edd should've known by then that there wasn't a light in everyone. And he realized this when Kevin kicked some sand into his face, laughing into the sky sharply. _

_"Shut up dork." He snickered, Veronica and Eddy watched grudgingly, wanting to do various things of gore and violence to the dreaded Kevin Lancome. _

_"Leave us alone Kevin!" Eddy shouted. Veronica got up and helped Edd remove the sand from his clothing. Ed stood up and was gripping his fists tightly shut. _

_"I want to be Godzilla!" He said proudly with an angered face. This amused Kevin to the fullest, but Ed came over and tried to push him off. "Leave us alone!"_

_"Stop touching my bike dork!" He yelled, getting off the bike and trying to shove Ed. He backed up, trying to stay out of a fight with the jock. But Kevin kept at him, really mad and determined to fight him back. Eddy got up, ready to help Ed. He followed them over to the grass under a large tree next to the river. Eddy shoved Kevin away from Ed, who in turn shoved him back and swung at Ed. Everyone heard the punch in Ed's face. Everyone watched, nervous of what was to come. Ed stood there solidly, with a bruise forming on his face. Eddy hit Kevin in the back, and he turned to punch him as well, with Ed standing still. _

_Veronica set Edd down and went to help Eddy, as Kevin was overpowering him with fist after fist. With Eddy on the ground, not letting go of his grudge and anger, Kevin got on him and punched him repeativously in the face and neck. He tried to fight him back, or at least protect himself. He called for Ed to help._

_"Ed! Help would'ya?" He shouted angrily. He hit Kevin in the nose, blood coming down as his tight fists continued to hit his victim. Veronica came over and kicked Kevin off of him._

_"Leave him alone!" She shouted. He stared at her, wiping his nose. Then stood, with little trouble, and went at her. Edd gripped the sandbox, Eddy got up fast, and Ed just stood there, the bruise now blue and brown. Kevin hit Veronica in the face, as she tried to shove him down with little success. Eddy came over and jumped on Kevin's back, hitting him in the head. Veronica kicked Kevin in the gut, sending him down on Eddy. He got up and grabbed her hair, Eddy trying to find where he was. _

_Ed lifted a heavy hand from his side, placing it on his blemished face over the bruise. He turned his head to a frightened Edd, then at the three fighting in front of him. Kevin shoved Eddy down again, with Veronica punching him as hard as she could. He grabbed her neck, and threw her over onto Eddy. This provoked Ed, seeing he was needed, he ran after him, yelling insanely. He held out his big arms, running with gaining speed at him. Kevin turned away from the two he had defeated on the ground to the missile coming at him. First he gawked, as Ed came up closer, ready to grab him and mercilessly beat him. Then, in a single, simple movement, he moved to the right, just in time for Ed to miss him, and fall into the river. Kevin laughed, and went back to his bike to ride off, wiping his bloody face. _

_"Dorks!" _

_Then everything was quiet, only the sound of the river gently rolling down the valley soothed their ringing ears. Edd came to their aid, helping Eddy and Veronica up. They turned their attention to the river bank. They looked down into the river, to see Ed sitting on the little shore, his feet submersed in the soft and unstable ground. He tried to lift his feet, but the mud was heavy, and half way up his shins. He looked up at his friends standing rattled on the grass. They all reached down their hands and helped him out. He stood on the grass, looking down at his new boots that he had been so proud of, coated rudely in mud. _

_"Dorks!"_

Kevin sat at the couch in the basement, folding his laundry while he was down there, watching the rest of the Miss America Pageant. He heard someone on the stairs, and looked to them. Veronica came down them, giving him an awkward look.

"Hi, Kevin," she greeted him, wanting to say more than had been for the past eighteen hours.

"Heah," he set down his boxers in the basket and set it on the cement, leaning over the couch to give her his full attention.

"Well, uhm, thanks."

"For what?" He was confused.

"For trying to help Eddy and I. We needed a push, 'cause it's been hard, dealing with our feelings after all that's happened." She never stopped looking at the floor, except for the occasional glance.

"I didn't do a thing, just told the truth."

"Yeah, well, I'm glad you did. I love Eddy. I'm not going to hide it anymore, there's no point in it. We only have so much time, we shouldn't waste it on hiding."

"That's right babe." He said, trying to remain nonchalant. Then commenced one of those awkward silences, with neither of them feeling good about it. He looked at her again, this time smiling dirtily, changing the mood entirely. "What did you do last night? I saw you go in the bedroom." She reddened, folding her arms.

"No..."

"Com'on, it's okay to tell me."

"I'm sorry Kevin. Listen, Eddy has told me all about you, and how you've changed over the years. But, I haven't really gotten used to it yet, so I'm sorry, but all that I see when I look at you is the bully who was horrible to my Eds." Kevin sat still in shame and awkwardness as she continued to speak apologetically. He was vividly remembering all the nasty things he had ever done to the Eds, even those things that they had deserved he remembered, thinking that maybe he had been to tough on them. "I know you're different now, but I just don't feel it yet. So please, give me time to get used to it. But, even when I do, I won't be giving you any details about what Eddy and I do in my bedroom, okay?"

He nodded, then smirked, "Yeah, yeah. No deets for me, I get it."

**All I wanted was his name. **

**He gave me cries of pain. **

**I crossed hell and fought,**

**for this air that I have gained.**

The rooms had each a different odor: Cigarette smoke in one, Lysol in another, perfumes mingled in another, and in yet another, food. Eddy led his guest to the food, which was the typical safe haven for those who did not know many of the party goers. But she was holding him up, so that he wouldn't put much pressure on his injured ankle. So far, they hadn't seen Rita, and Eddy was starting to wonder...

"Hi!" the perky woman said in a tight, casual dress as she sprang up right behind Eddy. This caught both of their attention. Though Veronica had never met Rita, she had a good guess as to who this woman was.

"Rita, hi," Eddy looked at her, then at his guest, "This is Veronica, you know, from New York."

"Oh," Rita looked at her, "I've heard a lot about you."

"Everyone keeps saying that," she mumbled, looking at Eddy's blush, "I've also heard a lot about you."

"Hopefully those were good things," Rita noticed Eddy's arm around Veronica's lower waist.

"Some of it was!" He joked. She giggled like a social 'flirty' butterfly, then she heard a tall girl with an exhausted look on her face speak up.

"Hi Rita's guest," the woman said, walking up to them, "Who's this?"

"This is Veronica, Rose," Rita gave her a stingy look as Eddy answered.

"Oh," Rose turned to her companion, "Looks like you got competition."

"There's enough of me to go around!" Veronica frowned at him.

"Not there's not."

"Well," Rose replied, "Enjoy the party Rita's guest and Rita's guest's guest!" Then she left to talk to other guests with a fluctuating happiness around her which was admirable. One of the people she'd talk to, would be someone that Eddy would never have thought he'd see at this party.

Sitting between two of her chums, she heard it. That voice, it sounded familiar, smoother and more mature, but familiar. She looked at the guy next to her.

"I'll be back Mitchell," she said, getting up and walking preoccupied onto the deck and into the house. The room was light in comparison with the darkness of the backyard. The house was full of people playing a warped version of charades. Passing through the room and to a large main room where there were three doors on three walls, she chose to approach the one where the familiar voice was residing. She could hear him singing a mellow song, amongst the sounds of a poor sound quality karaoke machine. As she got closer, pulling some of her long blonde hair behind her ear, she could see deeper into the room to the many people. She put a gentle hand on the doorpost and looked inside. People were sitting at couches and folding chairs, others standing against the wall. They were watching a man under six feet standing by a karaoke machine with a thick neck, terrible voice that he was struggling to control, and semi-muscular figure. She knew he was familiar, but couldn't tap into her memory. She looked to the left where a woman stood with long blue striped hair, blue eyes, and long legs. She was astonished, she was familiar as well. She noticed her staring, and glared back.

"Hi," she mumbled in a soft, feminine voice. That look she gave her, it was so familiar. She knew, she knew it well.

"Hi," she whispered back, she matched her stare with curiosity. The blonde could tell she recognized her, glad. The song ended, everyone in the room clapping numbly. They both clapped as the man by the karaoke machine smiled.

"Thank you, you're beautiful! Well, most of you are." He limped over to the door where the two old neighbors were gawking at each other. The singing man teased the brunette, urging her, "You sing."

"No," she smiled at him. Then she turned to the woman on the right, "Eddy, it's Nazz."

"What do you mean?" He asked, turning to the blonde beauty who was standing curvaceous, of average height, and with her trademark red lips showing as scarlet as ever. Eddy's eyes widened, staring that girl down.

"Heah Eddy!" She greeted excitedly.

"Hi Nazz!" He said, "Whoa, what are you doing here?"

"How are you?" Veronica asked.

"I'm good," she answered, "I know the hostess, so..." She stared at Eddy's head in perplexity.

"What?"

"Is that, like a wig, Eddy?" He grinned, shaking his head.

"No, it's real. Miracle."

"WOW," she smiled sweetly, "It's so great to see you guys!"

"Yeah, you too, what are you doing?"

"I'm a hair stylist, and I'm married to the most wonderful guy," she answered, summing up her life now. They thought she looked happy, and she was. She had a good life, even after the horror she had seen seven years past. This was refreshing, yet a kick in the face. They were afraid of the question they knew was coming, and did not know what they'd answer, since the answer was inadequate in comparison to hers. "What are you guys doing?"

**I must know his name, **

**so I could beg through my pain,**

**for the ones that I had lost,**

**and could see them again.**

_Eddy stood next to his bathroom door, in his bedroom. He would have grown impatient, if it hadn't been for the overwhelming worry and anxiety he was feeling. He felt like throwing up, but the bathroom door was locked, and he knew that the girl behind it wouldn't come out for anything. He waited, not knowing exactly what for. He knocked for the thousandth time, sending a dent in the door. _

_"Marie! What are you doing!?" He shouted, his face red soon after, ashamed of the yelling he had done._

_"Go away you rapist!" She shouted, her voice loosing it's depth. He could hear her sobbing. It had been three weeks since they first made love, and now she was accusing him of a horrible act that he was now questioning the validity to. He felt like crying, yelling, and dying. He tried to put the pieces together, but nothing fit. _

_"I didn't rape you!" He pleaded, hoping he was right. _

_"Yes you DID! I said no, but you put me down. I didn't want to do it, but you kept making me!!!" These words were so convincing, it made him forget that she had taken off both of their clothes. He fell to the ground, with a hand trembling over his mouth. He sat on his legs, his other hand on the doorknob. _

_"Did I really?" He asked himself, too quiet for her to hear, but she would have shouted,"YES!" He heard a knock at the outside door, and shouted after it. "Go away!"_

_"Eddy!" He heard Ed whine in a panic. _

_"Go away Ed!" The door opened, and he came in, sweating and his feet stepping, not going anywhere, but trying to. _

_"Eddy!" He picked him up, "May ran away! She said she couldn't stay with Lee. All she was trying to do was ask if Marie could come back to the trailer and Lee got mad and beat her. She was so hurt Eddy. She's been gone two days, she hasn't come back! You have to help me find her!" He begged, almost crying. Eddy looked at the bathroom door where it had been closed in a stalemate all day. _

_"I can't Ed," he groaned. _

_"Ed-dy!" He set him down, fiddling with his fingers panicky. "I have to find May!"_

_"I can't help right now, I'll help later!" Eddy shouted, staying by the door. Ed stood there helplessly for some minutes, not knowing what to do. He moaned and whined, sweating so much. Eddy just kept his eyes on the bathroom door. Eventually, he couldn't hear Ed, but only the door close behind him and soon he was alone with Marie again. "Open the door!"_

_He heard the knob turn, and the door opened. Marie walked off from the bathroom, leaving a little, white object on the counter. Eddy kept looking in through the bathroom door, so scared. He heard Marie crying so hard, frightened almost to death where she sat on the bedside. He swallowed hard, trembling as he tried to see the white object clearly from where he stood. "It's positive?" He licked his dry lips, holding onto the wall for support as he just watched the white object. _

_He heard her moan, staring blankless at the wall, contemplating her shattered future and her mistakes, "Yes." He turned to her, ready to die now. _

_"No." _

_She looked up at him, wondering where he got the nerve to say such a thing, "No? It's YOUR fault, you forced me! I can't believe you'd say no! It's your fault you bastard. It's your fault!" He couldn't take it, but ran out the door as she picked up his lava lamp and heaved it his way. He ran around the house and into the street where he saw Nazz and Marie's other cousin, S.O.S. walking over to Rolf's house. He followed after them, getting their attention. That look their faces held was something to fear. _

_"What's wrong?" He asked. _

_"S.O.S. has a hunch Eddy, it's about Lee," Nazz answered darkly, cautiously. These characteristics scared Eddy, since Nazz was never supposed to own them. Marie came out of the house and ran after Eddy into the street. _

_"Wait!" She cried, catching up and grabbing onto him. _

_'"I'm sorry Marie, this is my fault!" Eddy confessed, lying to himself. S.O.S and Nazz just stared. Eddy turned to them, "You know where Lee is?" Lee had been missing for two days, no one knowing where she was. And now everyone was anxious to know. _

_"I'm afraid Rolf has kidnapped her for some homeland ritual," S.O.S. answered in his deep voice. They followed him to Rolf's farm, where he was hoeing his land, preparing to grow some potatoes. He was sweaty in the warm summer sun, his shirt strewn over the ground. Victor was eating the grass around it, grunting peacefully. Rolf looked up to the four guests he had with a smile. _

_"Rolf, have you seen Lee Kanker?" Nazz asked, hoping it wasn't true. Rolf became nervous, swallowing hard, and smacking together his burnt lips. He looked up at the sun, then back at the small party. _

_"Rolf has not seen scary-Kanker-beast for quite some time past!" He said, stepping back. Eddy watched, worried, nervous about the way Rolf was stepping back. S.O.S. went over to the basement door, wondering about the single blood drop on the white double-doors. He flung back the doors, and out protruded the most horrible, musky, powerful smell that any of them, except for experienced Rolf, had ever taken in. Nazz screamed, with Marie turning her head into Eddy's shoulder. He stared down into that cellar, horrified by the darkness that it held. S.O.S. went down the dark cellar steps, ready for whatever he would find. Marie turned to Rolf._

_"What did you do Rolf!? Did you steal my sister!?" She shouted, shoving him back. _

_"Uh, Rolf does not know what Midnight-Kanker Beast is speaking of!" He tried to play dumb, attempting to release himself from her. _

_"Then where is she?" She shouted, lines of tears streaking both sides of her face. Eddy heard her cousin shout out a swear from down in the basement. Eddy and Nazz ran down the steps, practically tripping on the last step as S.O.S. ripped a board from one of the basement windows. With this new light, they saw what was plainly laid on a large, wide, wooden table. Blood soaked the table, and in a wooden bucket was pulse of human flesh, with two butchered pieces of a person laid coldly under the table. Cutting knives, a butchering knife, and an ax were laid out on the table, blood pools on the floor. A pair of ripped up blue jeans and a polka-dot tank top, viciously stained in blood, were on the ground, two tennis shoes on either side of the room. Eddy shouted, panting out of breath, holding his nose and almost falling. Nazz screamed louder, crying, hands on her face, crying on the wall next to the stairs. _

_"That bastard's going to pay," S.O.S. ran upstairs, Eddy and Nazz desperately followed, finding Marie still shouting at Rolf for something she didn't know for sure. "YOU BASTARD!" S.O.S. screamed, coming up fast and grabbing Rolf by the neck and punching him. "What did you do!?"_

_Marie turned to Eddy, finding the horror on his face. She continued to cry, knowing now what they had found in the basement. He grabbed her, holding her close as she cried. He turned his eyes upon the cellar opening, not immune to that horrible, terrible smell. Nazz was shouting senselessly._

_"This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening..." she cried in her hands. Eddy turned to Marie again, with the fight of Rolf's life escalating as Lee's cousin shoved him down. He didn't fight, knowing he deserved every bit of it. _

_"What did you do!?"_

_"Where is Lee?" Marie asked. Eddy stared at her, silent. _

_"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" _

_"Where's Lee?" Marie begged; he gripped her tighter, never to be ready to answer her. _

_"She's dead." Rolf escaped S.O.S.'s brute force to the front where he followed to kill him for what he had done. Nazz followed, screaming._

_"It's not worth it!" She screamed as loud as she could. Eddy looked at his Marie's eyes, as her heart broke into many impossible pieces. They ran to the front, seeing Kevin's car, only after the sound of Rolf's body smashed against it. They watched as the car stopped abruptly and Kevin got out frantically. S.O.S. and Nazz stopped where they were by the road, stunned. Rolf's body fell to the cement, smashed, mangled, bloody from everywhere, and frozen solid. Kevin reached the hood, and shouted his cusses at the sight of his best friend dead in the road. He looked up at the kids, tears swelling his eyes. He pleaded innocency._

_"I didn't see him, I didn't see him. I didn't see him in the way. He just jumped out in the way, I didn't see him." He held his hands on his head, shouting. "Oh, what was he doing!!?"_

_The cops were there for hours, finally they let Eddy go after he told them everything. He left the light of the sirens that was shining all over the buildings of the Cul-de-sac, traversing up the street weakly, exhausted and broken. He found Edd's house dark, and wondered where he was. But for some reason, he went up the walkway anyway and entered the house. It was cold, dark, and quiet. He hadn't seen him all day, and was burning to know why he hadn't noticed the commotion down the street at all. Something was wrong, he could feel it. He reached the staircase, and didn't hear a thing. He searched for the light switch and turned it on. The stairs and second floor hall was illuminated, but no one was seen. He raised a foot to go up the stairs, but hesitated for only a second. He went to the top, and to Edd's door. He couldn't smell it, he couldn't hear it, see it, taste it, or feel it. Only sense it. Something was wrong. Something was wrong. He couldn't see into the room well, only saw a figure on the floor over something else through the light of the hall. He switched on the bedroom light, just to be blinded by the dark red that was staining the carpet so boldly. Veronica lay over a body, a head rested in her lap. Both were still, and covered in blood that was now a dark red. A knife lay at Eddy's feet, drenched in the blood of his friend. He couldn't recall how he had moved, how he had possessed enough strength to stand, or walk over to the two on the ground. He was so scared, hardly breathing, but gawking over the lifeblood, over the life that had left. Now he could hear her crying, gasping bitterly, and weeping helplessly. _

_"Veronica?" He called out. "Double D?" He didn't noticed his soaked face, but watched her lift her head out of Edd's chest, revealing her horrified, shattered face. Snot, tears, and saliva were flowing down it miserably. She was shaking uncontrollably, and holding Edd to herself, soaked in his blood. He looked down at Edd in her lap, his chest bloody, and a shockingly peaceful look upon his face, his eyes closed in weakness, pale and calm. "DOUBLE D!!!!" He put his hand on his mouth, and stared at Veronica for the truth she wouldn't speak. She shook all the more, looking more dead than her love. She cried painfully, gasping and convulsing. "What happened!? What's wrong!?" He lifted Edd's head and tried to feel for a pulse on his neck. "He's alright Veronica, he's not dead!!!" He begged, but he felt nothing in his neck as his trembling fingers couldn't stay still. "No!!!" He shouted, ripping over the desk onto the floor, spilling everything on it in a crash. He hit the wall, then fell down to his knees, staring at his best friend. "No..." he moaned. "No." He looked around, knowing who had done this and why, and truly, there on the floor was Sarah. She was facedown, and completely still, untouched by the blood. And as he lifted up her head, he saw the anger in her face. Her eyes were open and red, drool running onto the floor. He grasped her wrist weakly, not being able to see anymore. There was nothing to feel, nothing to feel, and no revenge on this troubled girl to receive. "No."_

_He had woken up that morning, not knowing that Marie would find out that she was pregnant with his baby, that Rolf had killed Lee, that Sarah would viciously try to kill Veronica for her fiance, but kill Edd instead, that Kevin would accidentally hit Rolf, that May would never be found, that this would be the last day he'd see Ed, and that Johnny had given Sarah her last, and fatal dose of crack. If he had known this, he would've lived this last day differently. He would have gone over to Sarah's house and told her that Edd wasn't worth killing Veronica over; he would've listened to Ed instead of fazing him out. But now... he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what was to happen, and didn't know how to go on._

**What is his cursed name?**

**who keeps me in my pain.**

**Is it something I've forgot?**

**Or the love that I must gain.**

The car rolled along the empty, dark road. Two warm smiles were on the other side of the wind shield. They garnered old memories, the better ones, brought about by the meeting of an old face. A face they had never appreciated before as they did now. This person was just a neighbor, but now, an angel of moments. They realized how important she was. And with memories, Nazz had given them a realization. A realization that life had gone on. The pain was still there, the memories, but life had gone on. Nazz was married and successful at something she was proud of. She had gone on from the hell of that one summer, when no hope seemed in sight. It made them see how much they had not. Sure they had a job, a career, a child, a love, a friend, but they held themselves back. Both would not let go of the past, but they wouldn't talk about it either. And they really did not want to replace the memories and friends they had lost. Veronica stared at Eddy, then at his right hand which was clasped on the steering wheel. She let her eyes drift back to Eddy's face and put her hand on his. His cheeks turned pink; her touch made him forget his thoughts for a moment. He slipped his eyes to hers for a second, in them he saw the past and future. She smiled at him. Then he looked back to the road. Suddenly, the road wasn't so empty, dark. Suddenly. The expression in his eyes, on his face worried Veronica. Eddy thought fast and stepped on the brake. The car couldn't slow down fast enough, the car couldn't slow down fast enough. It couldn't' stop. Veronica looked toward the road. The horrible object, object in the road coming toward them, speeding toward them: what was it doing on the wrong side of the road? Why couldn't they stop fast enough? Eddy turned the wheel as fast as that car came closer. Thirty yards. To the left the car could hardly turn. Twenty yards. Eddy stepped on the gas. Ten yards. He looked at the last friend he had kept from his childhood. Collision.

His eyes could see flashes of red and white light. He opened his eyes, lying on something motionlessly.

"Get him in the ambulance, now!" He heard a strange voice demand. He heard cars pass, one stop, a siren stopped short, orders being hurried, vitals being announced, a car running, no, three cars running, but they sounded more like trucks.

"Which one?" Another voice asked. Eddy saw two people above his head, he looked down and lifted his head. There was two more people at his side and more in the background amongst his car in the ditch in a large tree, and an ambulance.

"That one," was the last words he heard before drifting off from exhaust.

**Give me his name, **

**or numb me from my pain,**

**and sit me in a lonely lot,**

**next to where they're lain.**

End of chapter three, yeah, cliff hangers suck. Review please. The next chapter's name: Home.


	4. Home

**An Ed to Face**

ALRIGHT! Chapter four! WOO WOO WOO!!!! Anybody got a tranquilizer? Okay, I might just have to bribe the 'hits' on this chapter to read the freakin' story and review it since I still only got my one faithful reviewer (aw!). Welp, here's the deal, read my story, and I'll give you a lolly. Wait... (looks from left to right and behind, then steps back and makes confused hand gestures), how's that going to work since I can't just shove a lolly pop into the CD drive and expect to email the lollies to you guys. Errrr...can you just read it anyway? I don't know what to do to attract more readers; I've tried almost my best, probably 90 to make this story great. Please read and review the story? Some of you must know how it feels to have a neglected story, I've seen it, poor people whose stories aren't reviewed for months or ever for that matter. Man, I love the word 'lolly'. LOL.

Author's notes to FanofDa'Edboyz: To explain the bold face stanzas in the last chapter, I must say that they are a poem that I wrote with the inspiration of this story and its subjects. I added it in the last chapter, it went along with the theme. It was like a songfic, yet with a poem. Now I realize that I should have explained it in the head notes that the poem would be included throughout the chapter, then you could've understood what I meant by it. Don't mind S.O.S., he only shows up three times in this story and two of them are done already, he's not important to the story, I just needed someone to find Lee's body, I didn't know who else would figure it out. So basically he's what his name prescribes, help in my story. Oh, about what you said of Peach, Ach Creek, you said that the OC was one of the reasons why you stopped reading it. What were the others? I'm curious here, I'm a curious kitten. I'm going to get into why Rolf killed Lee a little more in chapter six. Thanks again for such a long and praising review. And what I meant by the writer's block thing was the whole crash scene. Originally, when I wrote the story I got stumped, until I thought of a naughty idea. I was laughing evilliy and making comments to my sister, and wollah! I decided to make a car crash scene. Man, I thought I was sick. But usually the sickest ideas produce some pretty good stuff. We shall see. Thanks again.

(Serious, deep man-voice starts speaking) "Previously on 'An Ed to Face', we were left beside a cliff hanger after the freak accident when Eddy's car was hit by a driver on the wrong side of the road. What happened? Who's hurt? Who dies in the next chapter? Does anyone die in the next chapter? Does everyone die in the next chapter? When will April get a job? Today, we will find out after this commercial break." Not really. Okay, enough of my fooling around, on with the story!

**Chapter Four**

"Home"

Kevin got up from his chair in the hospital room which was flooded with light from a corner window. Eddy's parents had just left, and he sat up on the end of his bed in a stale hospital room with a bandage on his head, his arm in a sling. His body was inhabited by numerous bruises and more aches than the ibuprofen could mask. It had been quite a task to get dressed. As Kevin watched him sit on the side of the bed in such a distressful mope, he wondered why what had happened was even necessary, even plausible. Had he not received enough pain and sorrow in his life? Why? And although he had been told countless times why, a man with a high alcohol level carelessly driving home to meet his death, it wasn't the answer he could understand. It wasn't the real answer, the answer to everything._ Why? _What was the point of all this? Sometimes, in the past two days that he had been laying in bed and getting better, he had been dwelling on those last two moments before the cars hit each other and the sound and shock had deafened him. And he decided that if he had been able to go through it again, he wouldn't have been scared, but joyful. He had missed his chance at death. And that was the way that he saw it and no one could tell him differently. Kevin put his arm around him and helped him up. Eddy stood slowly; sharp pains going through his legs. It took an eternity to just to limp to the door. He became discouraged when he saw the long hallways outside the room stretching down in all directions.

"Are you sure you don't want a wheelchair?" A nurse asked from the counter. Eddy looked at the woman, waiting for Kevin's word since he knew all about injuries and the capabilities of the human body, being an athlete as a teen.

"No, he got this way from laying in bed too long," Kevin said; then he pointed down the hallway to the right, "Down here." The two men etched down the long hallway slowly to 'intensive care'. After what felt like forever, they reached a specific open door. Kevin stopped however, just lingering before the doorway. Eddy tried to see in, but couldn't at his position.

"What?" He looked at his friend's eyes, which were serious.

"Brace yourself," he answered grimly, "I told you she was beat up, but I didn't tell you how much." He helped him into the room then, trying just to get it over with. When Eddy saw the woman on the bed, he almost fell if it hadn't been for Kevin. Tears formed in his eyes; he could hardly stand to look away from her, but just looking at her burned his eyes like the application of an acid. She lay asleep, bruises all over her pale skin. A huge scratch ran rudely across the side of her forehead, three gashes blemished her arms, and another had sliced up her left hand. Her neck was cast in a brace and all the bandages on her chest gave her no need for the hospital gown she wore. And at last, her arm was in a sling as Eddy's, but the opposite limb. It was all he could do to not throw up at the sight of all the purple, and green. Kevin helped his poor friend over to the hospital bed, as he looked down at his love with tears in his eyes. The room was quiet, except for the beeping of monitors.

"You said she was going to be okay," Eddy's voice shook, "She doesn't look like she'll be okay!"

"Yes she will," Kevin sighed heavily. He could feel Eddy shaking; never had he seen him like this before. He never saw fear in him, sadness, regret, or sorrow, even though he was drunk with it all. Kevin let go of him and lingered by the door. He watched him sit down on the bed. He could hear him sniffle; that was too much for him, so he left. The tears in Eddy's eyes dripped down his face as he sobbed over her. He looked at Veronica's beat up hand that lay on the grey blanket which was laid so perfectly over her gently, afraid he's shatter the beaten fingers.

"I'm so sorry," he blurted out, "I'm so sorry. It's my fault you're hurt more than me, it's because I turned the car to the left. I didn't want to turn right, into the deep ditch, so I turned left. I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," he heard a weak and miserable voice say slowly. His eyes shot over to hers; she was awake.

"Veronica it is my fault!"

"You are not the one who ran into us," she said in anger, "You did your best to prevent the collision. I'm just glad you're okay." Eddy was about to answer her in mutual opinion, but stopped himself. There was no reason to lie to her, he wasn't glad he was alive. Veronica turned her hand over and grasped Eddy's with a strength that surprised him. A smile was on his face now, one of peace and happiness.

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Eddy had both hands on the steering wheel of Kevin's car. He drove carefully, almost paranoid. He had not wanted to get back on the road after only a week's leave, but he needed to get back to work. After a month, it was finally time to take Veronica home, well, to his home. Eddy looked at his house as he stopped the car. They got out and he helped her into the house. It was the normal quiet at this time of the day. All she could do was stare at him, stepping forward. Her arms around him, she whispered.

"I thought I could never hold you again." Eddy almost laughed, he was so happy, even though he knew she was about to leave.

"You better go pack," he let go of her coldly and marched away, almost furious. Eyes watched him leave to her room, they began to tear.

"I have to leave," she spoke up, defending her case.

"Move here," he practically ordered, wiping his eyes in the bedroom where he remembered kissing her so many nights.

"I can't just up and move."

He came back and took her hand, "I'll wait. Just say you will so we can plan, you can live here with me and Kevin."

"You know how inappropriate it is for a woman to live with two guys," she frowned at him.

"We respect your privacy and stuff," Eddy almost begged. Persistence was in his blood and he used this to his advantage, "And you know I'll protect you from anything, even myself." He could almost laugh at saying that, only making things worse.

"You always ask me to take off all my clothes in front of you!"

"If you did it I would stop asking," he smiled deviously. She rolled her eyes.

"I like New York Eddy."

"But you LOVE me."

She smiled at his begging face, always enjoying weakness in him, "Yeah. I might as well stop procrastinating since I know I'm going to say yes anyway. You wouldn't mind at all? I could get my OWN place."

"No, you can have the extra bedroom you're in now. It wouldn't be trouble."

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"No, the apartment went for forty thousand."

"Forty THOUSAND!" Eddy freaked, "I'm glad I don't live in New York." Kevin and Veronica looked at each other, slightly remembering Eddy's greedy days as a twelve year old. He opened up a box that Kevin had misplaced in this bedroom. He took out a pot, alarmed to have found such a replacement for Kevin's rice mishap. "You have dishes?" He asked, knowing that she would, but never really thinking upon it.

"Yeah." Veronica smiled at him, unpacking a trash bag of her blankets. Kevin looked up at the ceiling and mouthed a sincere thank you. His friend frowned at him, then left the cluttered room. He went down the hallway back to the kitchen when he thought of Benny. It's funny how small objects can bring thoughts, events, and people back to your mind all of a sudden. Eddy had noticed the owl knick-knack that sat on a shelf; this particular owl having scared Benny the first, second, and third times he had seen it. Three months ago he had seen him. He sobbed hard in the open air. His hand over his mouth, he gasped.

Marie had taken his wonderful child away from him and moved to Albance, a city sixty miles away. She had moved in with a man she got her fixes from. How dare she put her son in such an environment? He had an idea on how to get Benny safe, but it was far too risky to him. In the kitchen, he set down the box of dishes, looking at the phone.

"No," he remembered Marie's move...

_He had already had a bad day. Veronica had left for New York, the hospital bills halted him from paying his half of the rent, and his boss had yelled at him again about Rita. Now this. He got in his car with his anger building, speeding over to Marie's apartment. There she was outside the apartment complex, helping some man named 'Billiard' pack her couch into a small moving van. He got out of his car, glaring at the back of her head. _

_"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM MARIE!?" He slammed the car door shut. _

_Marie turned to the road, seeing her ex-boyfriend and father of her child come up to the lot, "Eddy?" _

_"Don't doubt it Marie, why are you moving?" He couldn't help but shout. Marie looked at Billiard and they set the furniture piece down on the truck's bed. _

_"Because I can't pay my rent." She said with no shame. _

_"What do you mean?" Eddy held out his arms in an insane gesture._

_"I've lost my job at the antique place." _

_"Why?" He knew why. _

_"Coke fell out of my purse." Billiard shook his head at him. _

_Eddy frowned, putting his hand on his head, "You have to wreck everything Marie!" Usually he was merciful, but this was too much. Her company walked off. Eddy glared at him, "Where are you going?!" _

_He turned his head, giving him his dark eyes, "This," he motioned at them and the apartment with his hand, "it's none of my business." _

_"Are you moving in with him?" Eddy yelled at Marie, who was now staring at the ground. _

_"Yes."_

_"Okay, that isn't YOUR business!" Billiard said as he was pacing back. _

_Eddy stared at him in fury, and shouted in such a fast language that no one could stop him, "It is if my son is in it!" The man he was glaring viciously at shook and went to the driver's seat of the truck. "You can't live with him Are you thinking Marie!?" _

_"He's nice!" Marie was now angry, and didn't mind shouting at him to a certain extent. _

_"He's a drug addict!"_

_"I am too!" She screamed in admittance. Those words had never come out of her mouth. Even though this wasn't news to Eddy, he still was shocked. She lifted her head, calmed down, and said, "You can't have him."_

_"Give him to me Marie. You aren't putting him in any danger," Eddy shrieked, "That man sells drugs, in his home. Do you know how dangerous what he does is?!"_

_"We spent time there before, a lot happened, but we were alright." _

_Eddy freaked out again, "What? What happened!?" Marie threw her hands up and went off rapidly to the truck. But he followed after her, "Heah, Marie!" The truck drove off before his eyes. He put his hands on his head again, he couldn't handle this._

Gasp. Tears fell down his face. He hit the counter, grasping it in his hot palms. Leaning forward, then he went back again as the tears ran down faster. Kevin came into the kitchen with another box of misplaced dishes. He stopped at the sight of Eddy leaning over the sink. He heard him sob. He could not stand seeing him cry before and he most certainly wasn't going to now. He set the box down quietly and went off back to the bedroom.

Hopeless, the situation seemed. Eddy knew that he had to get Benny out of this mess, but only one option was available, and this option was a chance that he had kept as a barrier up to this point. Marie, after a fight that they had had seven months before Benny's birth, had reported her alleged rape to the police and had tried to send him to prison. She gave it up later, but it was still on file. This file, this report, this stain, was what Eddy feared. How many social workers would allow a rapist to have full custody of the victim's child? And if he had Benny taken away from his mother, there was no chance he would ever be able to see him. So he had to make a choice: leave Marie to ruin their son's life, or quite possibly lose him forever.

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Social services was lined with computers and people. Eddy walked to the room where Benny was. He felt so out of control right now, having to ask to see his own son? An odd smell was in the hall. He grimaced, oh, it was awful. His fingers tapped violently against the palm of his other hand. He looked through a window, finding that this was the room. He opened the door and looked at Benny in relief. Then he saw the man next tot he door to the left. He watched Eddy as if he was going to hurt his son.

"Dad!" The little child hugged his dad's legs. He looked down at him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Then the little figure stepped back and stared at him, "Why am I here?"

Eddy swallowed hard at this damning sentence, "M.m... mommy wants to be with a bad man, so here you'll be safe."

"Cam I come with voo?" Benny's lower lip pouted uncontrollably and his eyes were gleaming under the light of the ceiling. He looked scared for his mother, if not scared for his own situation.

"No, not yet. I have an idea though."

"Vhat?" Benny asked excitedly in his lisp.

He knelt down and smiled, "I want you to put on your 'cutest', saddest face when I get Veronica who's outside the room, okay?" Benny nodded, still not knowing what was going on. "And when she's here, I want you to ask her to adopt you."

He suddenly became dark and all the more frightened, "But I vant to be with voo!"

"You will, don't worry. She lives with me now, so if you are adopted by her, you will live with me." The boy became overjoyed at those words, just to have it turn into a frown.

"Why von't you adot me?"

"Uh," Eddy looked at the social worker, then back at his boy, "Because daddy's not allowed."

"Why?" He couldn't comprehend that fact that his own father couldn't have him.

"Because they think I did something wrong."

"Tell them you didn't," he held the most faith in him, who was only fifteen years older than he was.

Eddy smiled at him, "They won't listen, I already tried."

"Oh," Benny's head bobbed at that, but his face was long in solemnity.

"So I'll be back. Remember to look sad," Eddy left the room excited to where Veronica was sitting in the lobby.

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"Eddy, WHY would you tell him to do that?!" Veronica yelled. Kevin stood by the closed door, listening to one of those 'couples' arguing.

"I thought you would say yes!" He heard Eddy explain, "I thought you'd want to adopt him!" Kevin went away from the door, seeing this was not his to deal with.

"I can't adopt YOUR kid! Why don't you take him, he's your kid, you love him!" She stared at him on the opposite side of the small bedroom, panting and glaring at him as if this was all wrong.

He looked at his feet, still in his shoes, "Because the social workers won't give him to a rapist."

"You didn't rape Marie! How many times do I have to tell you this?"

"They think I did."

"What? Just because of a report that didn't go through to the trial? They won't hold him back from you for that reason! Did you even try to get him back?" This was where her desperate shouts were overcome by the silence of the house. Guilt was harboring his face, holding his tongue. She watched him impatiently, becoming frightened as more seconds paced by. He dared to look into her eyes, swallowing hard yet again. This whole situation asked questions that he didn't want to deal with or go through with. But what more could he expect from those around him? Such passionate and sincere people they were. He knew they loved him like crazy, and that this wouldn't be easy.

"It doesn't matter, if I tried they would tell me no."

"You don't know that. Marie has disproved the rape herself by letting Benny visit you, now a rape victim wouldn't do that. They won't have any choice but to give him to his dad. So stop this, I am not adopting him, YOU are!" She pointed a finger at him, trying to convince him of what seemed he couldn't grasp.

"You have to listen to me, you have to adopt him, I can't." He walked over and took both her wrists, hoping to force her to agree. She was shocked as he repeated it. "You have to adopt him. I can't tell you why, but you have to."

"Why?" She asked silently, staring up at him. She could feel his heavy, nervous breath on the side of her face, and knew that this went much deeper than it appeared. He trembled, knowing his plan was smacking him in the face, like so many lives had. "Why?"

"Is there... something wrong with you? I saw you coughing this morning, it woke me up. It sounded horrible. I've heard this same cough for the last month that I've been back here with you...is there something I should know?" She looked at him heartbroken.

"No," he moaned quietly, hoping she wouldn't hear it but give up her interrogation. But she kept her eyes on him, waiting for the answer she so desired. So he did the only thing he could, tried to leave. He went over to the door, letting go of her and grabbing the door knob. But, as he turned the knob, he felt her two arms embrace him and pull him to the wall where she turned him around, pressing him to it. He tried to push her away, but she held on so tightly, staring up at him as before, digging into his soul for the information she needed.

"Then what is it?!" She shouted madly. Then, as if a floor panel of her mind was just fastened down, she saw where this was going. He watched her mind go blank, and become paralyzed as she stared at him with such a terror. Quickly, she stepped back from him and let off her hands. Then she rushed to her room as fast as she could, leaving him and going to her bed. She lifted up her bed skirt and took out a metal box among so many cardboard ones. She put her hand on her neck for the key to the lock on the box. But the chain was the only thing she could feel, and the key was missing. She gasped, looking at the box with the key in the lock, sitting so still, so eerie. She turned her head slowly to the door and saw who stood in the doorway with the content of that secret box in his right hand, pointed toward the floor.

"You didn't think I'd find it?" He asked, making her quiver in fear. She threw the box down and tried to stand on her shaking legs. "I've always wondered what that stupid key was for." She kept her hand on the necklace, tears rolling down her face. She looked at the gun, crying at the sight of it.

"You weren't supposed to know." She sobbed, staring helplessly at him.

"So I couldn't stop you?!" He shouted with the most anger in his eyes.

"Yyyyy...yes, I can't stand to be here anymore," she moaned, gripping that necklace until her nails were digging into her palm. She stood there weakly, staring over at him as his anger built. He lent on the doorpost, with such a grasp on the gun that was so cold.

Then, as she had feared, he shouted, "You thought that the best way to deal with your pain was to give ME more!?"

"No Eddy..." she shook her head in a violent sway.

"WHAT did you think? That I'd be happy that my only friend that knew what happened back then, my baby, was dead?" He continued to shout at her, believing he had every right to. Veronica's head hang out of his eyesight. This was the challenge: just to look at his tear clogged eyes.

"No," she croaked in a whine.

She had lied to him, "Then how could you?" He watched her turn to him; putting her head in her palms. Her sobs climbed into Eddy's mind. For an instance in life to mean anything in a guarantee to him, he had to tie it down in a desperate attempt. Because it would fly from his grasp otherwise. He had to tie her down. "Just... say you won't do this."

"I can't..."

"Why now? Why now? There have been so many years since our lives were wrecked, why now?"

"I was going to do it in New York, three months ago. I had a rope, and a balcony... I tied it up to the end of the railing, and tied it around my neck... it felt so good." She was crying, this uncomfortable, shameful argument was the least she could stand, as Eddy's eyes fogged over, and he gritted his teeth in anger. "I... stepped over the balcony, but I looked down... you know I'm afraid of heights. I stood there- all I had to do was let go of the railing. It was so cold... all I had to do was let go and it was over. I wanted it so bad, OH! Why couldn't I do it? I thought about you, I always do. And... errr, the only reason why I was afraid of heights is because I am afraid to die!" She paused at that, gasping, "And I realized that. I was afraid to die. What's wrong with me? I want it, I WANT it." She bit her nails viciously, her fluids pouring over onto her finger tips.

"That's why you came back?" He asked, staring at her with a newfound fear.

"Yes, you always made me strong Eddy, so I came back, I had to see you one more time," she braced herself for more shouting, expecting him to be furious. But for some time, he remained silent, stunned, and seemingly ashamed in himself.

"I took the gun and hid it, you think you are evil for what you have been thinking, I hid the gun. But, as a couple of days went by, I thought about it and it seduced me. You don't think I think like you? You don't think I'm miserable? You don't think that I've thought about it? When you left... and when Marie left... I thought about it... 'cause if I don't have Benny, if I don't have you... I have nothing. What's the point of being alive?" He shook his head, "Now I can have both, but I...you know when we got in that crash... I wished I was dead. I was freakin' let down. I know I'm second best, but if you don't stay, I have nothing. I'm sorry I am putting all this on you. But I can't..."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Then don't kill yourself," he watched, hoping she was reconsidering, but she just threw more excuses at him.

"But... I just can't stand it anymore. I have been standing the guilt from still hating Sarah, the sorrow of Ed, of Ed. The fact I can't love another beside my darling... I just miss them so much." She felt ashamed to be loved by Eddy, not deserving it.

"I know," she could hear his footsteps descending then the sound of a gun being jangled in the hands of its possessor. Veronica's eyes met his again, and this time she almost screamed in agony. She was watching Eddy, now his own enemy. The gun was pointed at his own head, rested against it in tense manner.

"Eddy!" She stepped forward, but was too afraid to move any further. He lowered the gun and pointed it at her heart. She swallowed hard, seeing the flame in his eyes.

"If you are going to do it, I'm going to go out with you. You want to die? I'll... do it... for you. And end this," he held the gun tightly, this wouldn't be an accident, he wouldn't slip. Two clean shots would be all he needed to end this.

"I don't want you to die, I don't want you to kill me," she quivered, feeling so cold, "Put it down." Eddy kept his arm stiff, pointing the gun at her with his index on her gun's trigger. Quickly, he removed the bullets from the gun and dropped them into his pocket. Those fell down to the bottom crease of his pocket, falling though a hole and dropping down his leg. Eddy and Veronica watched the bullets roll on the ground, having heard the sharp pin drop of the impact. They rolled down the floor panels and out of sight. He swallowed hard, threw the gun toward the bed and rushed over to grasp her in his arms.

"I'm sorry," he held her face to his shoulder, searing her to his own body.

"Me too."

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Okay, that's the end of chapter four. Please review.


	5. Woe unto Me, I Find You

**An Ed to Face**

This chapter is the saddest, I believe. I started crying while writing this... crap, why would I cry at sad stuff? What's my problem? Am I a normal human being? Uh...something is wrong with me!! I need to call a doctor. I need to call a personality physician.

In this chapter I've included another poem, it goes with the whole thing, and just shows Eddy and Veronica's inner feelings as they go through one of the most painful times of their lives. The stanzas also work as paragraph separators. I do realize that I am updating at a rapidity that is startling for the reputation of this site, however, I will not be updating for probably 2-3 weeks.

I did research for this story when I was writing about the second or third draft, and this research, I hope, has affected the way I have written the problems that the main characters face and the ways the deal with them. I researched the symptoms of depression, and paranoia. Perhaps you can already tell which sickness Eddy has with his suicidal tendencies, hallucinations, and inability to let things go after seven years, but it will be more identifiable in this chapter. Veronica's sickness is more obvious: hallucinations, unhealthy amounts of guilt, suicide attempts, and emotional instability. Yeah, and it's about to get worse with Eddy, that won't help.

I burnt my tongue with the hot lasagna sauce. Ow.

**Chapter Five**

"Woe unto Me, I Find You"

He lay in his bed. The room was in its night state: dark, quiet. This was Eddy's enemy, sleep ran away backward, laughing and mocking. _How can I find you?_ How could Eddy find something that he wanted so bad. Just to sleep, sleep was the only way he could forget, and even that was haunted with the dreams of a million ghosts, with only two recognizable. All was quiet; he knew everyone else was sleeping their own beds, all but him. He gave up and slid his legs across the sheet to the edge of the bed, and then to sit up. He crawled out of bed, aching inside and out. Almost falling to the floor, he caught onto the doorknob five feet from where he had started, on his knees and gripping the doorknob until impressions of his sweaty palm could have been visible if the light had been on. But, of any person who had ever lived in the countryside would know, there was an indescribable darkness, beyond the dusk of eyes sealed shut. Crank. This door released the warm atmosphere of his bedroom out to the cool hall. He walked toward the living room, turning right to the kitchen. The hallway opened to him, and he could almost feel a wind of wide space on all sides of him.

Perhaps if he couldn't find sleep, he could find death. This vague, sleeking thought led him to the minor, quick glance to where he knew the knives were kept. No, no he wouldn't be a hypocrite anymore. Veronica needed him. Well, if he left now, Benny wouldn't hurt as much. If he had been any older, he would have been traumatized by his death. Yeah, he could just be told that his father died of an accident, and that would be all he needed to know. If he was older... it would be harder to convince him. Maybe, he would not even be able to remember his father if he left now, being only the small age of six. No, no he couldn't do that. Why would he? He had never thought himself to be crazy, or miserable enough to go through with it. And he had never been capable of fathoming it. How could anyone be miserable enough, to be brave enough to kill themselves? Wasn't it the whole point of all living creatures to try and stay alive? Almost all of life's activities were in an effort to live, not to die. Could he be strong enough to end his own life? Or was this the question? Was the question whether he was strong enough, or weak?

A single tear fell into the bottom of the sink, soon followed by another, and another. He leaned over the sink, his hands on either side of the sink's porcelain finish, clenched loosely out of weakness. The truth felt so good.

"Don't cry." So many chills ran up his spine, stunning him motionless for too long, but only a second. He heard a voice, a familiar voice which he had not heard for so long a time. Turning, rushing, he looked right into the eyes of a young man, up to his face and on his toes to look into his friend's eyes. Beginning to cry harder, he reached out a hand.

"Double D!" He had to keep him here. Ed always left when he saw him. He needed to keep someone here. He reached out his arms to grab him, but as he opened the eyes that had only blinked, he was gone. "No, come back!" He collapsed in his own hopelessness. He wasn't there. He was dead. "I- I am crazy." He said aloud in a plain manner. This was the truth whether he accepted it or not. As he sat there on the floor, he cried into his hands, letting flow the pain of the missing.

Feeling a warm, soft hand on his bare shoulder, he looked to Edd who stood behind him in his childhood manner, as if he had never perished. "No!" He closed his eyes with his fingers on his lids, "You aren't here. I just want you to be." He stood and ran as fast as he could in the dark to Veronica's room. He tried desperately to get inside and away from himself. Falling to the ground by the locked door, he stared in the numbing dark until he could not stand it anymore and squeezed his eyes shut. And as he lay with his face in the carpet, he heard that same, soft voice whisper sympathetically, pleadingly, as if time was running out.

"Let go."

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Veronica awoke to the sound of a whine. She sat up on her elbow, glancing at the door where she heard that strange sound coming. The sunlight was bursting rudely through the open window. Opening the door, she looked down at Eddy; he was dreaming in a tortured state. All she could do for some time was gasp, and fight back the tears that were building in the bottom of her lids. She got down and shook him as gently as she could. Coming to, he stared up at her.

"What are you doing out here?" She frowned to hide her emotions and worry.

"Oh," he looked around at where he was, sighing. This was not something he wanted to talk about. He wanted to pretend his problem didn't exist. Thankfully, she no longer expected an answer, but helped him up on his feet.

"I heard you in the kitchen last night. But fell back asleep," his face turned red as she admitted, "I see him too."

He glared, so surprised, thinking it was strange enough that she saw Ed and May, but him too? "You do?"

She nodded solemnly, "Everyday of my life." Eddy saw the pain in her face, "You aren't crazy." She kissed his cheek, just for him to snap in ecstasy, grabbing her and squeezing her off the floor in happiness. He wasn't alone.

**I find you.**

**This one good thing, on this day**

**Of this realization.**

"Dad, why voo I had to vo to schools?" Benny looked at his father in confusion. He was watching him now start a list of school supplies on the edge of the couch cushion. The only light in the room came from the open window where Veronica was sitting on the sill, staring out at the grey sky. Benny tried to read the words that Eddy wrote down in his... handwriting. Kevin sat in a chair, loosening up his new baseball mitt, watching Eddy try to think.

"Because you are a big boy now."

"Oh," the kid replied. Then he smiled, "I am?!"

"He needs stuff," Kevin said, repeating the same slamming action of a baseball in cup of his mitt. The phone broke this odd family scene with a melodious ring.

"Can you get that?" Eddy asked him as he typed down 'glue'. The man stood, grumbling something as he went to the kitchen. Eddy looked to Veronica in concern as she seemed somewhere else, or at least somewhen else. "Can you think of any stuff Benny Bones will need for school?" Benny grabbed his nose at that in a joking way. He pushed him back with his head and waited for her answer as they both gave off chuckles.

"Pencil sharpener," she took a while to answer, then trailed back into her world. Eddy looked at her even more worried than before, his laughter gone. These minor details were clouded when Kevin came back into the room, with a cautious step. He looked without action, as if he knew nothing to do. He was a different person from the one that had left to answer the phone, and this different person was terrifying in the sight of his roommates. He looked dumbfounded, as if he did not own a single word in his vocabulary. He knew no words. He needed to say something: the look on his face had robbed all of their focus from everything else. The silence was eerie, and grew with every lagging second.

"What?" Eddy broke it with fear in his tone. They all were worried and disturbed. Who was on the phone? They wouldn't have doubted death itself as the caller at this point. But only Kevin could know, only could answer.

"Benny should leave the room," he proposed. He didn't really know if Benny should have left the room, but found it so much easier to say than what was burning him.

Eddy dumbly took the remote out of Benny's hands and ushered him to the front door with a gentle yet firm push. "Go play outside, stay out of the road."

"Alright," and he left obediently. Veronica bit her nails, staring at Kevin without a blink.

"What is it?" He looked at her, then sat down in his chair with his head down. He had hoped this day would come, but now? He felt guilty suddenly for thoughts that were years old. He knew the past, he hated it. He knew everything... he knew that it would kill them...

_Eddy sat on the floor of Edd's room, his hands wrinkled and red with the detergent hurting all the cracks. He held the damp scrub tightly, scrubbing all he could to get the red out of the carpet. Edd would never have stood to see such a stain. He had to get it out for him... he scrubbed, sitting in the large, dark puddle of what was now so black, so bleak. He scrubbed as hard as he could, but it couldn't come out. The sponge was stained in red, so he took it and dipped it in the bucket that was lying nearby. The water once had been steaming, but now it was cold, red. His tears were falling into the bucket, creating little circles that flowed in every direction until they hit the sides of the plastic container. He moaned weakly, giving the floor another glance. He couldn't stop himself from whining, it would never come out, no matter how he tried. The sun was coming up, with its light reflecting off the side of the west wall. The blood wouldn't come out. There was one spot in the middle of the stain, which was all clean, in the shape of Veronica's lap and Edd's body. He watched that spot, hoping he could get rid of the rest of the stains, or stain that spot as well so he wouldn't have to know so vividly the last moments of his best friend. He gasped, convulsing over the side of the bucket, with saliva coming down the sides of his face. If...if Edd was here, he'd know how to get out this stain. He gasped so loud that he almost choked, with his face hot. Little red freckles were starting up under his eyes and on the cliffs of his cheeks in the moist tears that escaped understanding. He was alone for this hopeless task: Edd was dead, Veronica was at the police station, being interrogated because she would not say a word, so shocked she was mute. But that was only two accounted for, where, where was Ed? Then he remembered beyond his present pain, to Ed. Ed had needed his help, to find May. And he had told him he'd help later. Where was he? Certainly he wouldn't leave without someone to make sure he wouldn't get lost. He stood, and ran down the stairs and to the phone. There was no answer at the Miller residence. And he put the phone down after so many unanswered rings. He hadn't been at the station with his parents. Could he have gone? Could he have been that stu... No. Eddy walked as fast as he could out the front door and down the sidewalk. Yellow tape blocked off some yards, and part of the street. Guilt was pouring in, as much as he tried to tell himself that Ed was okay, that Ed knew where he was, and that Ed wouldn't get lost, without a map, without someone to keep him safe, without a destination. He would be okay. He was hardy, he was tough, he was strong. He'd be alright. He'd be back in a while. He'd be back today. It was a new day, he'd be back. He would be okay. _

_The day went by, and Eddy had to explain to Mr. and Mrs. Miller why Ed had left, while reassuring them that he would be home soon. The big lump wouldn't be gone long, long enough to get hungry and come back, or enough to find May and come back on a successful hunt. _

_"He'll be back today."_

_But today became tomorrow as the sun set, having circumference that sky that had witnessed so many deaths and the dark commenced on their hopes. Tomorrow was let down, and the days went by, turning hope into dread. Flyers were put up, television stations called, missing person alerts and calls made. Every relative was called, every friend. SOMEONE knew where Ed was, someone knew. But as the Cul-de-sac trials went on, two living witness could not be called to the stand in court, because they were not accounted for. Eddy saw those two missing persons portrayed on the news as other possible victims of the hell that had went on in that once peaceful cul-de-sac. He couldn't believe they would be giving up on him. Ed was okay, he maintained this day after day, until a whole month went by. And when the trials were completed and Johnny escorted to his share of a psychiatric unit, Ed's bed was still empty when Eddy crawled down through the basement window and lay in it. He wiped his nose, moaning over his missing friend. How long would this go on? Why was Mr. Miller looking for a body? Why had he told Ed he would help him look for May later? If he hadn't, he would know where he was at this exact moment. He would. He wiped his eyes on the crusty pillow, gripping Ed's blanket. _

_"Where are you?" _

"What is it?" Eddy repeated the question.

"That... that was the Millers," Kevin muttered, not daring to look at those two tortured souls, "They found a body at... Ed's... description, by a lake thirty miles from here," he repeated what Mr. Miller had told him, "They want you to go the morgue and identify the body. They can't...do it." He understood why Ed's parents wouldn't want to see, if it was his body, to see it in such a state of decay. But he also understood that neither would any of them. They were his family too, they wouldn't want to see it at all.

Veronica began to cry, "It isn't Ed!" She shouted madly.

"Yeah," Eddy added, shaking violently inside, "We've seen five different bodies so what's this one?"

For only one moment, it was silent. Kevin lifted his head to him, with the sealing fact, "They found another skeleton, a girl's, a blonde girl's."

**I will be.**

**My one hope is to be well.**

**To give you a plaque and go. **

He sat in his bedroom, staring in his mirror. His hair was combed perfectly, tie neatly folded: all over he appeared nice. But his face, he couldn't groom. Tears streaked his face, he felt as if he was digging for more reserves of this salt water for he was just about drained. The nonstop pain in his heart pricked him in a numb grasp. After years and years of waiting, grieving, even wanting to find Ed's body instead of nothing, he had given up hope of anything.

"Ed has it better." He knew it was true. He had to endure crying spells, suicidal thoughts, bitter hatred, for so long. At least Ed had perished in innocence, unscathed. But he wished he could trade his life for his. Ed would've been able to move on, to enjoy life. The burn in his heart would not let him think of anyone or anything but his dear friend. He could hardly bear another funeral. "You can't be dead." From that day forward, he would never see Ed again.

**I have you. **

**You left me there, now listen.**

**If you can hear this plead.**

Veronica was used to sucking it in, so not a tear fell that one Tuesday afternoon. She sat in Kevin's car. The service had been so bleak. She never looked at a thing, knowing only the color of the carpets and tiles, and the voices of the cries. Eddy stared at her as much as he could from the backseat. He sighed, his face so sticky and irritating. Veronica had her sentiments of disgust at him. Why was he crying? He had been crying for seven years. This was no news. Why cry now? Kevin was behind the wheel, looking at Ed's parent's car up ahead in this procession of mourners to the cemetery. When they came up to it, cars lined the streets. The back of one car was opened with a casket exposed to the sunshine and the chirping of cheerful birds. They seemed to mock. Twenty people passed the metal fenced gates, and made their painful way to Ed's lot, a grave stone already in place there. A hole lay in the ground. These people were quiet, seeming to procrastinate this final service with their slow crawling. Eddy held Veronica to him with an arm, the other swayed helplessly. She never took her eyes off the ground, but there could only be twenty people. Ed's parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins, that would be it but them and the preacher. The casket lay in the truck; it was parked by the path that wound through the cemetery. It was carried by family to the grave sight. It was laid on a table next to the dark, lonely hole. Then everyone sat in chairs. They made sure to listen to every word of the preacher, as if it was the only way left to honor Ed Joshua Miller. Veronica just looked at the grass, never at anything but its green, lush, lively hues. There must have been just close family there. Who else would still remember him?

**I am selfish.**

**What have I done? Deserving.**

**You should've been given better than me.**

The preacher's words were solemn, but with a hint of rejoicing hope. Eddy didn't wipe away his tears or hide them, there were so many tears falling around him. Veronica clenched her fists and teeth. She was enraged with him. No one cared. No one should cry now. So what? No one should cry, but she was mad they didn't care. What did she want then? Their existence to disappear? She wanted to just die. She wanted to bring Ed to life to take his place with her beloved. The preacher's words ended, he stood still, closed Psalm 23. His words rang numbly in their ears. People walked toward the casket with flowers. These were laid on neatly, a forming pile. Eddy was in joy at this, and so were Ed's parents. He nudged his friend, so she looked up. The sunlight burned her eyes, but she looked up and saw what she had been angry for not being, for no one caring. Before her was the casket, and an unassembled line of almost fifty mourners.

**I want to.**

**I have to heal, to see now. **

**Why you have left me here. **

Nazz lay a bouquet of forget-me-nots on the black, slippery surface with a pressing, gentle hand. S.O.S. came up with a blue rose. Next came Marie with a bouquet of wild flowers, she was quiet, with her head down in shame. These people sniffled, cried, held each other up, or just remained astonished. How could he be dead? A fellow victim, the most innocent of all, gone. He wasn't unlucky enough to survive. Jimmy came up with buttercups, remembering that one friend he once had, and her brother. Edd's parents came up and set on red tulips. Ms. Kanker came with lilacs, with her brother, Mr. Kanker with white carnations, placed them down. All the victims of that one tragic month, the time that haunted life. Ed was to be remembered as the lucky one. He didn't know what had happened. The innocent, happy creature was in all their hearts.

**I can't bear. **

**When will you come, and be here?**

**I want to leave my place for yours. **

Eddy stood with Veronica, followed to the casket. They held onto a single bouquet in their hands, holding each other's hand. Red roses, beautiful and full, they laid them gently on. Their hands trembling, their hearts quaking:

"Goodbye."

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Well, that is it, 'til chapter six. Review please.


	6. Objects

**An Ed to Face**

Be prepared, this is another angsty chapter. He was just at Ed's funeral, what is Eddy going to do in order to get the answers that are burning him? Please excuse my overuse of exclamation points in this chapter, even though I have been taught that overuse of exclamation points dulls their meaning and signifies inexperience in writing (believe it or not), there is a lot of yelling and suppressed emotion that is getting out in this chapter and I believe the exclamation points to be necessary. Many of your vibrant pool of questions will be answered in this very chapter. Oh, and I guess I should post a thank you to my sister for pretty much the only good criticism she ever gave my stories, it helped in this chapter. Complain, complain, complain, that's all she ever did about them and she hated Veronica's guts since the earliest years that I included her. But her help in this chapter has been... errr... essential to making the story more realistic.

Even more author's notes to FanofDa'EdBoyz I know that the Kanker sisters are only half sisters with each a different father, BUT, they all have the same last names. I highly doubt that their mother married three brothers to get the same last name, but I think she just slept with whoever and had them, giving them her maiden name. That explains Ms. Kanker. Mr. Kanker, who I mentioned in the last chapter, is her brother, or Veronica's father. That's the way I worked out that situation, but it is kind of confusing I guess. Sorry 'bout that. And Veronica is the reason why Eddy's wounds have resurfaced after all these years, and now it is also because of Ed. And besides, that time in Eddy's life was just horrific, it would be so hard to forget it, you know? Veronica had never gotten over her pain, hence she still wears Edd's engagement ring. Yeah, and just because someone else is crazy, doesn't mean you aren't. You insinuated the reasons for Eddy's relief in her words perfectly, since it is better to be crazy with someone else, than alone. I was not going to get into what happened to Jimmy, but I will squeeze something in for you, this is a chapter of answers after all. I always look forward to your reviews, thanks for the feedback.

This is the last call before the final chapter which is probably going to be updated in two week's time, tell me what you think the extreme plot twist is gonna be. I am not going to tell you what is going to happen in chapter seven, but what I will tell you is this: you will nevvvaaahh guess the ending, nevahhh!

In the words of Conan O' Brien: "Keep cool my babies!"

**Chapter Six**

"Objects"

_The blood was running down her shapely, big arms undetected as she stomped down the dead end road, her fists clenched, her eyes filled with tears, filling her with shame. She pushed her eyes, trying to stop it, as her other hand was so stiff by her side. She had never known heartbreak, until this moment. She was going so fast, even though she never saw anything in front of her and never had a destination, just anywhere, anything other than the truth, the hurt, that Eddy had given her. She had loved him without holding back, given him her dreams, her lips, her hands- and now to say he didn't want it? And what couldn't be worse, it was her sister, her sister he wanted. The betrayal burned, and nothing could hurt more. The park was quiet and nothing was out of place, with the swings caressed by the wind, pushed back and forth hauntingly, as if being ridden by spirits. The moans of the chains drew her in, and she ripped up the entire thing and threw it in the creek. Then, she unearthed the merry-go-round and tipped it over, to sit on it and sob out loud in her hands, so painfully. Her purple eyes were stinging, as the tears she never, ever cried flowed so freely from their once permanently stopped up ducts. She didn't know how long she was to sit there and cry, and didn't care. Anarchy reigned, and hopelessness and pain was its best friends. The wind whistled gently, interrupting her at different times, but only this, and nothing else. No one would go after her, for no one loved her, no one cared. What if she was a witch? Did it mean she didn't matter? _

_Then a voice disrupted her ears that had been filled with the monotony of her endless, choking sobs. And this voice, was of one she admired so much. But she didn't want anyone to see her. _

_"Why does she-beast-Kanker-fright babble down with water of curses?" She didn't lift her head to look at him on the sidewalk with a paper bag of farmer's market goods, but turned away, trying to hide what she had promised she would never shed. _

_"GO AWAY!" She screamed, so mad that her misery and tears were displayed in her words, worried he'd know what she was doing. _

_"Woah ho!" Rolf stepped back, his blue hair sticking up at her blasting scream. "Rolf knows nothing of day-to-day cosmetics, yet Kanker beast need not weep over formalities and stain such one of a striking nape and frame!"_

_She hadn't understood much, but saw the endearment in his eyes, and the way his face blushed at such a drastic variation of this nightmare's expression. "You think I'm pretty?"_

_He blushed all the more, hoisting up his slipping bag in his strong arms. "Would she-who-knows-no-fear join Rolf for a feast tonight?" _

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_Jimmy was never a tough boy, it was his heart for Sarah that kept him alive. She was his only interest that made him appear normal, he saw what others didn't, and what others didn't appreciate. He had been her joy and interest, if it wasn't for her weakness. He knew something of that crush, that middle Ed that he hated more than all of them even though he was the most agreeable. That was the point. He knew something, and as he walked up to her house with a gentle step, he burst with jitters. This was, most possibly, his last chance at redeeming her for himself. And this news he would spread out for her to hear, was something he knew would break her. He came into the house, and went up to her room, where she had been detained for weeks after having slit Veronica's throat for her love. Jimmy knew that Sarah wasn't that crazy, and he knew that Edd was not that important. And that's where the drugs came in, the second reason why she was enclosed. Only Jimmy was allowed to see her, but he had to admit to himself: he was afraid to go back there. But his heart drew him there, he could help her, he could heal her of the love she felt, by giving her the best reason to put up a white flag. _

_He knocked timidly, hesitating to hear himself being yelled at. The door opened, and he saw her standing there, with her face wet and red. All the furniture behind her in the room had been tipped over and thrown about everywhere, under the shadows of a lightless room. _

_"S...Sarah?" His voice squeaked, his delicate legs shaking in his white jeans. _

_"What do you want?" He couldn't ignore the irritation in her voice, and knew why he was second to be desired. _

_"I wanted to speak with you."_

_"I don't want to talk." And with that she tried to shut the door. He grabbed the door knob and pushed it back, objecting to her power. He could feel her energy in the door, pushing against him. _

_"What? But you want to talk to HIM!?" His eyes swelled, "What about me?" _

_"Give it up Jimmy! I knew that's what you wanted to talk about! You think I'm crazy, you think she deserves him, well she doesn't, I saw him first! And don't you cry," she shouted coldly, shoving him into the railing of the hall, "...don't you tell me to 'give it up'!" He looked up at her, scared and heartbroken. _

_"But...but...but..." _

_"But what? You love me? You're just a little boy! It's over." She went back to her door, going to close it again. She heard him sobbing, and rolled her eyes in fever. _

_"He doesn't love you, he never will." _

_"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" She turned, snapping at him with her piercing, volumous voice. "Everyone says that, you don't know that!"_

_"Yes I do," he whined, being able to find happiness, to revenge himself of her cruelty, " He proposed to her yesterday." _

_Those words, those words stung her mind and she could no longer think, it was as if... as if all the worst possible things had come true and shut off and out her passion for dreams, for thought. She stared at him, seeing the honest joy in his eyes, radiating in the hallway light of a single window. She then escaped for her bedroom, snapping the door shut, shaking the entire wall at the impact. _

_She started thinking again at that abrupt snap, and looked frantically about her room, stomping on the ground she stood and screaming in the center of the room, "NOOOO!!!!!!!!! NO NO NO NO NO!!" _

_And it was somewhere within those seconds that she couldn't handle it anymore, and had to find the last of her crack and use it, use all of it. She needed everything to make this pain go away, to make it stop, because she was too weak to handle it. _

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_Ed sat in his room, watching television, having a nice, yet quite plain night in his room. He knew he missed May; ever since her mom told her to stay away from such an older boy it had been harder to see her. He knew she needed him right now, with the fighting in her trailer having escalated to the point that Marie was being battered everyday, and no one knew how to stop Lee's suspicions of an affair going on. Fighting was something he couldn't take, so he knew that May could not be surviving well. He sniffled a little, to be startled by a knock at his window. May came down through the glass frame, with a backpack on her shoulder and a teddy bear curled in her right arm. She looked, so sad, and he sniffled all the more, seeing her upset. He got up and came over to the table to give her a passionate hug. She held onto his big, wide shoulders, crying painfully. These innocent tears were shed like painful pills, and he picked up her head and traced his finger down their paths. He could feel the goose bumps on her skin as he did this, and smiled all he could during this moment of bitterness. _

_"I can't stay there anymore Ed! They keep fighting! And Lee thinks I'm taking Marie's side!" He circumferenced the outside of her bruise that was staining her arm with the same finger that was moist with her tears. His lower lip trembled, and he grasped onto her again, having her belongings drop to the cement. Her feet left the ground, and he carried her in his arms so tightly, bringing her over to his box and sitting in it with her in his lap. She smiled at him only briefly, wiping her face. "You don't understand me, I can't stay there! My mom is yelling at me for being your girl, she thinks I'm too little for you. What can I do? I can't go back there." He pulled her into his chest._

_"There there sticky bun, don't worry, I'm not too older." He kissed her forehead, squeezing her close in affection, "Everything will be OK." She got out of his arms, standing and collecting her things behind him. He counted every time she wiped her nose with her fingers, eleven. including that little sniffle in her sleeve. She pulled on her backpack, pressing her teddy to herself. _

_"I'm running away Ed, anywhere's better than with them... I'll...call you when..." she didn't know when or where, "...I get to a phone." _

_"But where are you going?" He stood up in the box, becoming sadder. She stared at him, not knowing how to answer. _

_"I don't know." _

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He walked down the stale, stenchful, uncomfortable hallway. Doors open along this hallway revealed people you wouldn't want to see. He couldn't help but want to wash his hands, smelling things that reminded him of cats or wet hair. The dim light pressed down on the souls of its victims, just topping those factors which were unrelated to it. All those factors, were depressing, all seeming to have had one deterrent in common, yet it was too late for most, if not all of them. This was a house of the hopeless.

He had one reason to be there, one sick person he had to punish. And this person, was not among the hopeless, belonging to the chains of the wicked.

It was darker in this room, and it reeked of pine. The freshness of the smell only went along with the inhabitant of this room: both didn't belong here. There he was in the left-hand corner, sitting at a small table looking at a log with rough bark on the side of it, sap still dripping down, gluing residue to the log in an unsightly manner. The entering man shut the door carefully and only made it halfway across the floor to that table when the boy spoke. He never took his eyes off that log, only greeted his visitor with a single word.

"Howdy."

His visitor noticed the light blue shirt and matching pants he wore with no shoes or socks. The atmosphere made him believe his feet were clammy, and they were, with his toes feeling bruised on the tiles. The man awkwardly came over and stood next to the table.

"Why do you keep coming here?"

Eddy was quiet, just to torture the teenager for a moment, if anything, "Because I want to know why my life is a miserable pile of crap. I want to know why Veronica can't even kiss me without feeling guilty. I want to know why Ed died."

Johnny looked up at Eddy distraughtly, "Am I God? NO! I hated you because you treated me like trash and thought I was crazy for knowing how to talk to Plank," he said 'Plank' in the way Eddy said 'Ed' as if he was a dear, missed friend. "I was so glad to tell Lee about you and Marie so she'd wreck your love. I was overjoyed when she made so much trouble for you two that Marie moved out and in with you, I knew you'd ruin your life by sleeping with her. And I hated Veronica because she was SO happy with Double D. I hated him because he thought I was crazy like you did. So I told Sarah about them and gave her some of my crack just to make her hatred for his 'beloved' fiancee enough for her to kill her." Johnny stopped taking blame there.

"You killed Ed!" He shouted with tears being brought up with the ghosts.

"All I did was tell Rolf about Lee when he was looking for a sacrifice in his old world ceremonial killing. He didn't want to kill her, but his parents pressured him because they were already under suspicion of other sacrifices they had done before."

"If Lee had been at the trailer, May wouldn't have run away and Ed gone after her!" Eddy smashed his fists onto the little table, shaking it down to the very legs. He was so pitifully pathetic in the eyes of cold Johnny, who just protected his name, denying he had as much effect on what had happened that summer as Eddy believed.

"So? You can't blame that on me," Johnny then realized the subtleties of the English language, "What do you mean 'killed him'? He's only missing, you have no body. He could be in Malibu having babies with May." Johnny tired to annoy him, digging scratches into him like a fly on a lion, flirting with rage. He grabbed him by the patient clothes and shook him again. He looked at Johnny's happy smile and dropped him on the table, hurting the teenager. Eddy went over a safe distance from that evil grin on his face. It was horrifying that the monster found this funny, of that look, it was horrible.

He had a mission, so this time he didn't want to get thrown out. Yes, he had a mission today, and he wasn't going to leave until the last action that he had plotted out so carefully while tossing in his bed at night was drawn out into life.

"Police," he started, gasping, "...found Ed's body. The funeral was yesterday you pig!!" Eddy slipped his hand down into a bag that had burdened his shoulder for a while now. Out he pulled a pine board, 2x4, and drawn on with primitive crayons, faded eerily with the pass of etching years.

"PLANK!" Johnny hung out his hands to it, with tears, drawn on in the torments, coming up, "Where did you get him?"

"Your mom," he tried to hold in his hatred and ecstasy, just for a moment. He had an unhealthy pleasure in this mission.

"She wouldn't bring him to ME, why did she give him to YOU?"

"I told her I wasn't going to give this hunk of wood to you," he spoke, shielding all of the excitement and suspense in his voice with dullness that his heart, as he ignored the vain cries of the boy; he took out a single match from his jeans pocket, "but burn it."

"NO!" Johnny fell out of his chair and on his begging knees, crawling over to Eddy and sobbing beneath him.

He ignored him to continue, "When you were on trial, you blamed your behavior on this board. YOU blamed my friends' misery and death and MY death on this piece of thoughtless lumber? You fool. This was your excuse. This was your excuse to get out of your deserved punishment."

Johnny yanked on Eddy's pant leg, "No, don't." Tears of terror were clogging his eyes, and his lips were the only part of him that were not trembling. His eyes were so set on Plank, eyes of a longer, of a misser.

He kicked him off, sending him on his back and trying to get up off the floor full of wood shavings. When he sat up, he saw the way Eddy glared at him: so heartless and cold. And when he spoke again, his words were those which he had always resolved to throw into this person's soul, with indignation and distance.

"I stood up there at Ed's funeral, said a few words. I said that Ed didn't deserve to die. I wished it was you in that casket- no! I wished it was your corpse rotting to the bone for seven years after being killed by overexposure, just rotting there. Animals having taken everything they wanted from your body, your purple skin gone- but, but your ripped clothes full of dirt," Eddy's eyes teared up and blurred, and he almost lost his voice in the whine he gave, "...and that dirt was your hands. Left all alone, your shoes gone except for the rubber soles. The dew had stained your bones and clothes, all the maggots gone. Sadness the last look on your face, the fear of being lost and away from the warmth and your friends... so lost, you didn't know if you'd ever be back again or what. The blood stained your bones as you are in a lonely woods for seven..." he sobbed harder, just the loneliness consumed him, when he had been pointed to on a map where Ed was found, he couldn't believe how lonely and hopeless the area was. "I wish that was you. You deserve nothing better..."..

He just stared at him, Jonny's face diluted in snot and tears. He whined in horror and guilt: he had never had anything against Ed, why did he have to get hurt?

"Here..." Eddy struck the match on the side of the board, staining it in a white scratch. A flame illuminated his dark features and the tips of his lips as he held it to Plank. The wood smoked, and turned black under the energy force, and finally became inflamed in its fibers. He held it up from Johnny's shaking hands as the fire slowly crawled to the entire top of the combustible board.

"No, no, no, no..." the boy begged, each plea louder and more hysterical than the last. He began shouting as if his life was at stake; terror filled his eyes. "No! Please! Save Plank!" He put his hands out and stood, making Eddy back up. "Save Plank, you're hurting him!" Johnny desperately fought for Plank, with Eddy doing all he could to keep him back. He grabbed the board, burning his own hands, and finally, hitting his enemy. The torched board was knocked out of his hands and fell, the flames fanned by the wind of the short fall right before impact. A black piece of the wood broke off, creating black splatter marks as it bounced away from the board on the cold tiles.

Plank bounced in three rude intervals, until it became still, laying motionless, wordless, being consumed by the anger of Eddy's weary heart.

Johnny scrambled toward the board, ripping his blanket from his mattress to put out the flame, but his enemy went after him, grabbing the boy and trying to brace him. But he turned and punched him in the face, the tears filling his wailing mouth. As blood flowed from Eddy's nose, he ignored it to grab him and throw him down to the tiles with his weight. But this only made him crawl, trying to get to the distance of home, and Eddy threw all his limbs around him, laying on his back and pinning him down.

"Stop it Johnny! It's just a piece of wood! It has no feelings! It is not alive! There is no difference between this piece of wood and... and the wood that's made into clothespins!"

They didn't see the people gathering around the door. These people were too much scared and confused to enter the heated room. They had all thought that someone was being murdered in there, making them have to listen to their duties as human beings to aid the victim, and to find this...

"NO! SAVE HIM!" Johnny crawled under Eddy, slipping from his arms and heavy panting. He left him there on the floor, to get over to Plank, just to be too late. He could no longer hear his friend screaming for help. Johnny's face was streaming down, a elongated drop of nasal fluid coming down and sticking to his clothes, hanging from his nose. He shook, on his knees at small bonfire.

Eddy got up slowly, wiping his chin on the sleeve of his shirt. He watched, awed with Johnny's such earnest attempts. But there was no way that Plank was real, Johnny was just sick enough to sell it. He cared...so much. But revenge had been sweet, and Eddy believed it would be satisfying enough.

"You can keep the ashes, as a reminder of the lies that saved your pitiful life."

The boy didn't look up, his eyes only lingering at the lifeless board, consuming to ashes.

**The End**

The last chapter's next to come.


	7. Two Years

**An Ed to Face**

Wow FanofDa'EdBoyz. That whole Benny being Edd and Rolf's baby is screwed up AND medically impossible, and Ed and May's bodies being mistakes would be impossible since morgues use dental records to identify decomposed bodies, however, I'm not sure they ever went to a dentist in the first place. But, something that caught me about your weird guesses was the Eddy, Veronica, and Kevin pairing. Uh, okay, stop reading my mind. I'm not going to do that, but I was thinking of it. Well, anyway, your attempts are admirable, but you are off, which is just the way I want it until the-very-last-scene. Don't peek.

I think my sister hates Veronica because, in the early years of her existence, I was a thirteen year old. Her dizziness and flirtacious ways in my earlier stories irritated my sibling. However, the fact that she falls madly in love with Edd is probably her main choke since she doesn't like anything that hints upon human emotion in the first place (seriously, I've never seen my sister cry but maybe once over a dead cat). But she doesn't like S.O.S. either, I think, so it must be the OCism. It's probably both reasons. I just learned not to read her any of my fanfictions ever again.

Thank you. And for anyone else who may review later, I will reply to your reviews. I definitely will, unless I'm not dead by then of course.

Warning: If you have a heart attack while reading this last chapter, the author of this story and are not liable for your death/medical bills; so please, keep a bottle of aspirin by your desk as you read this just in case you have cardiac arrest, better to be safe than sorry.

**Chapter Seven**

"Two Years"

_Eddy was hoping this was just her joke, or just her bad decision that she'd see the truth to right before she'd leave the terminal. He had refused to help her pack, as much as he wanted to be with her, he had refused to wish her luck in her new life, as much as he wanted to say he loved her, he had refused to drive her, but found himself cracked under the weight of his emotions. He had told himself, "Let her go, you don't need her, she wants to leave you, so let her. Don't say goodbye." But he was now holding onto her in the terminal, crying shamelessly, whimpering with his head in her waist and begging her like a crazy man not to leave. _

_Veronica was cold, and wiped her face, looking down, begging him with her eyes. "Eddy I can't..." She was eighteen now, and had graduated. Her scholarship to New York State was what almost hung her only remaining friend in sorrow. She didn't want to leave, she knew she'd be lonely in New York, she knew that she was slashing his wounds: but she couldn't stay. If she stayed, she might go insane, just like she knew she would. He held onto her, and could feel her damp skin through the wet cotton of her tank. _

_"Don't leave, don't leave, Marie left, don't leave me too." _

_She forgot the existence of all others in the crowded terminal, only him, and him alone. Her heavy, humid palm, was guided through his strands of hair by her shaking fingers. He cried harder, holding on tight. _

_"Don't leave me." _

_"I can't stay, I know I should, I know I'm only making everything worse, but I can't stay, I've tried, but the ghosts are driving me away... I can't believe Ed will come back when I see his ghost everywhere I turn, if I stay, I'll only kill myself... rushing it won't make it not true." He looked up at her, lifting his head and staring into her dark eyes. _

_"No! It doesn't mean anything, nothing is coming true! He did it! We didn't, it's not our faults! None of it is!" Snot ran over and down his chin, mingled with his tears. She stared down, caught a drop of her own salt water and clenched her hand tight. _

_"Yes it is! How many of us have to die before you realize** you **were wrong!? How many of us have to die!?!" She screamed, "We were wrong, I didn't want to admit that, but... but... It won't bring them back, but at least, at least..." she got on her knees and braced Eddy's face in both her palms, face to face with his pain. With her lips bouncing desperately against his trembling mouth, she moaned, "...at least if we admit it now, we can live! What will prove it to you? Do I have to die in order for you to believe? Do I? Is that what will prove it? Don't make it that way Eddy, please, believe now, and then we can live... don't kill me Eddy, don't kill yourself! Please!" _

_She squeezed his skull until it hurt, and stared at him until he burned with guilt, yet triumphed in his pride, in his persistence in being right all the time, even now. _

_So she got up off the floor, took her bag, and walked off, giving him the last look he'd get for five, long years, "Then I have to go Eddy."_

"When I was a kid, I heard about 'cutters'. I didn't understand why they did it, no one wanted to talk about it. They just said they were really sad. But I eventually figured it out, but I couldn't understand why anyone would do something like that to themselves. I hate pain, but did everyone else? I knew I would never do that, never. I hated pain. I hate pain. But now I understand what they meant by it, they hated themselves, they had pain, and wanted to feel something better. Pain in the body is better, I know that now. But if I was going to give myself anything to treat my pain, it wouldn't be more- it would be the eliminator. That's what it would be...would be. Yeah. I won't do that. I won't. I am supposed to keep care of her, I can't kill her, I can't kill myself."

_"How many of us have to die?" _

Eddy often thought like this, even as the months climbed by since Ed's funeral, even as the months went by since his last confrontation with his torturer. And he often thought about the past, but this last memory he had entirely blocked out of his mind, until now. Pain hurt, pride hurt, but he knew he was right, and that was all there was to it.

He wished he never have had to take the job he did: it was so far from home, and the consequent car ride all alone only made him worse. But the medical bills were demanding, and keeping care of Benny full time made taking the IRS secretary job a necessity. The long drive home everyday, back and forth, almost killed him.

The quiet, thought-filled time wreaked of entropy, as if just another device of his torturer, to kill him.

He avoided every mirror in the car; he didn't want to look at himself, that ugly reflection that was his own face. He knew what everyone thought he was going to do, what he wanted to do, but he couldn't do it. He knew that if he did it, he would only be making everything true... everything right. And that would mean he was wrong.

But... he gripped the steering wheel, if he killed himself first, Veronica wouldn't, because she would know that Benny needed someone. If he did it first, she couldn't. And that would not make everything true.

He knew better though, if he left her, her misery would overflow to agony and there would be no hope, and that gun would be waiting for her. The car was pulled to the side of gravel-framed road, on the countryside. The only thing that would save them would be his acceptance and happiness.

"WHY!?!" He screamed in anger, breaking down, crying on the steering wheel and smashing the dashboard with his fist. Then he banged it viciously, over and over. He stopped eventually, ignoring the blistering sting in the side of his hand, sobbing. "Why can't I be happy?" He was yelling, and no one person could hear him. "Why can't I be hap- it would be so wonderful." And there, is voice collapsed and he, sore and tired, fell in his seat, staring out the windshield ahead of him, sniffling. It was as if he been tranquilized, and all he could do was lay there, his chest protruding off the seat in a pant.

For the next few minutes, he thought of happiness, he meditated over the sheer thought of it. That life seemed impossible under this curse. It was the carrot dangling under rope, and he was the donkey, he was the fool.

But this life might have been possible for Benny. He thought off his precious son, and how he was noticing his father's state of depression: it faded his beautifully innocent face into a gaze. If Eddy left now, then he wouldn't have anyone to fade his smile. Oh, what a ridiculous thing to think! How could the boy be happy if his father was dead? And yet, he thought of it as his only chance at happiness. No one could be happy with such a past as his, with such a cloud as Eddy around. If he did go away... then he could be happy.

But... she would die too. Benny would have no one... no one, Kevin couldn't care for a kid and he'd already done enough for him, he'd go in a foster home... he'd be alone... he'd be confused, would he be told that his father gave up on the world? Would he know that his father was a selfish jerk that thought that his pain was more important than his son's life? Would he? No!

No! He banged his hand on the dashboard, shaking the car. NO! He couldn't give up now! He couldn't make everything true! He couldn't be wrong! He couldn't give up! There was only ONE more chance... and he had to take it, he had to... for everything else was surrender.

He would be happy, if not for him, for everyone else.

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Benny looked up at his dad as he held onto the door knob, lingering in the doorway of his room. He watched the twenty-two year old staring at something in his hand. The expression on his face, was a relief for the kid. Sure, it was anxiety, but at least it wasn't misery. He was hoping that he had had something to do with that change of expression, since he had been trying so much to cheer everyone up. It worked most days, him charming Veronica and relaxing Eddy. And as he gradually kept distracting them from themselves, he thought that maybe they'd get better and better. He didn't know the consequences of what would happen if they didn't get better, but, more than anything, he wanted them better.

"Daddy, what are you looking at?" He set down his playing cards where he sat on his bedroom floor. Eddy looked at him and smiled.

"I'm just thinking about something."

The boy continued to stare, no smile for him, just thoughts, "Will you play gin rummy with me?" His eyes gleamed, realizing the way that Benny always listened to him. He had been helping his son with pronunciation. The little kid was growing so fast, even though he was now only seven.

"Okay," he answered, slipping the ring that he had been ogling down in his cords pocket. He came in the room and sat down next to the boy with his little legs folded in front of him.

Dealing cards, the kid counted, moving his lips, but barely a word getting out: "...five... six... seven..." Eddy watched him put the rest of the cards in between them in a flat, yet imperfect manner. How he enjoyed his son, how he ached, fearing that he wouldn't be around much longer. He could feel the impending danger, yet hid it well. Such practice he had had, he had been pretending to be normal for such a long time. "You go first," Benny smiled, his eyes fixed on his father again, fading his cheer. Eddy looked at his cards and placed a few down. But even as it was Benny's turn, the boy only stared at him.

With a sweet personality, in a caring outlook on the world, he didn't miss much. Especially when it came to the broken child living inside the man in front of him. Parents think they can hide from their kids, but they should know better than to underestimate their intelligence. This was how it was with these two.

Their eyes' sight merged into a long, mutual stare, with Benny's chin up and his chin down. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you could never do anything wrong." As they sat there, he decided not to hide his secret from him, but to ask him his opinion. After all, he feared that his last chance at life would fail... and he feared rejection. He dug into his pocket, and took out his ring. He showed it to Benny, letting him get a good look.

"Pretty," he adjusted his leg under him, "Why do you have a girl's ring?"

"It's for Veronica," Eddy couldn't help but make it short.

"Did she win it?" He became excited.

"No, uh, this is uh, a um," the man was tongue tied. Finally, he sat up straight and cleared his voice, "Would you mind if I married her?"

His reaction was a frown, Benny thought a bit, then he stretched out his arms, and opened his mouth.

"I thought you already were," he was given an inquiring look by his taller counterpart. "You love her so much," he rolled his eyes, "... and she loves you. I thought you were married." His tongue stuck out in disgust and his eyes skipped with teasing.

"No Benny, we aren't married. I don't even know if she'll want to marry me." He only mumbled this, but Benny had heard it and was confused, thinking that lovey-dovey stuff between a woman and man was all there was needed.

"Why?"

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Veronica walked into the living room with a basket of laundry in her arms. She set it down in Eddy's stationary lap, distracting his mind from his dominant thought of marriage. He looked up at her in the silence, and she smiled at him weakly, sitting on the couch next to the basket. Folding the bath towels, she tried to ignore the look on his face, the look that said that he needed to say something very, very important. He put the basket on the floor and turned to her, as she folded rapidly and never looked at him again until he moved closer to her. This made her decide to forget folding: she needed to get out of there before he even tried to ask it.

"I...m, tired, I'm going to go to bed, good night," she stood and tried to go off, just for him to grab her hand. Pulling her into his lap, he held her closely like a treasured doll. Her eyes dug up into his most inquiring look of love. Sitting there for a minute, feeling his heat chilling her spine, she escaped and went to the hall.

However fast she walked, she was stopped by his lowly words, "You love me, right?"

"Yes," she almost whispered, so passionately into the air, "You know I do with all my heart."

"Almost all of it," he got up and started to the kitchen, opposite where she stood turning and staring at him. She lowered her head, feeling her guilt weigh in.. He turned back to her, staring at her helplessness, her sorrow, her predicament. However determined, he marched weakly over to her and took the woman into his arms, vicing her to him. He'd ask it plainly, but he was nervous. What if she smacked him? What if she said no? What if she ran from him? Cried? Rejected him?

Vaguely, he felt her touch him. "You have to take me seriously and think about what I ask you baby," he twinged and held her tighter against himself. He didn't know how to ask it, but, if he was going to say it, it was now, "Would you marry me?"

Veronica's mind raced, but everything else in her stopped. And she stared only at him, with eyes burning, vision blurring. Eddy knew she never cried happy tears. "I'm sorry I can't wait anymore." He lifted a hand, and wiped her face gently, spreading out the warmth of her tears.

"I don't know," she moaned.

"You know what to say."

"Yes I do... and... I will ma..." Eddy grimaced at her pause. She remembered who he was fearing, and cried heavier and heavier. "My heart belongs to him! It does... I can't... I rejected you in junior high for him and now that he's dead you expect me to yield myself?!" Her words trailed into each other, with painful squeaks, whines, moans, and breaking sobs. He looked down as he cried inside, just to hear her voice in his face, so afraid. The fear numbed and caged them both. "Look behind you!" She was gasping, gripping him, as he turned in the demanded direction where Veronica was staring longfully. He couldn't see what she saw though, he couldn't see anything at this point.

Nodding, "You see him, don't you?"

"YES!" She continued to cry harder, gasping, sobbing, convulsing in his chest, "I love you Eddy." She was apologizing: the last thing he needed her to do.

"But not enough."

"Yes, enough, it isn't easy! I told Double D I'd marry him, and... that I'd always love him. How can I be with you when I belong with him?" And now, he was crying madly, begging her to save him.

"You can love him and be with me."

"I want to be with him."

"But you can't." These words, they collapsed her in his arms. He caressed her in a sway, kissing her forehead even though she tried to make him stop. "I wish you could have him, even for one night. I'd let you have him... as long as you'd be happy, I'd let you have him..." She climbed back up into a straight stance, staring into his endearing, desperate eyes and startled with his offer, his degree of love. Nothing could have told her how much he loved her, but these words.

He held her, moaning and sniffling, "I just want to be happy Veronica, and the only way I can do that is by being yours." He saw the wonder, the enchantment, the awe in her eyes: she was taken, taken beyond pulling back. He knew that no matter what he did, he couldn't bring her love back, he couldn't save her from herself if he couldn't save himself.

And she hadn't said no.

She reached up her lips to his, just an inch, and kissed him, so awed by his selflessness, not even knowing to what point he was fighting to stay alive for them. He let her kiss him, open him up and reward him for his love. And once she got inside him, she was overcome with the love with which she saw in his eyes, watching her cry. He pulled her tightly, pushing himself against her as she held onto him passionately. And he was kissing her back, rubbing in her mouth, even though he knew she would never be willing to devote herself to him. However, she pulled him into her all the tighter, rougher, desperate to feel him so close. They both could feel the chills, the pleasure of surrender, and he soon was overcome by her pulling him and pushing his body up into the dark hallway and pressing herself on him. She couldn't stop kissing him, unless it was his face, unless it was his neck, unless it was pulling down his shirt collar and kissing his chest. Her arms grasped him, as she just cried, sobbing out caresses onto his frame.

His head hurt up on the hard wall, but she made up for it with her intense desire to press him. Face smeared with tears and her saliva, he tried to smile, blushing in her grasp. She stopped then, and looked up at him, holding him all this time, "I want to make you happy." She panted, as he gently took his hand, and wiped her face once more, smiling at her and crying himself. He stared down into her fragile eyes, hoping that this was real. He knew her bedroom was three feet away, he didn't need to look to it to make sure: he couldn't leave her eyes staring into his heart. She reached up for one more kiss, only a peck, on his satin lips. Her warm breath pinted his face of a beautiful red hue, and no sound could be heard, but the moaning she tried to hold back.

He slid his hand down her sticky, yet soft face to her neck and rubbed it, tracing down her arm to the hand around his waist. He enveloped his hand around hers, feeling the only icy part of her, and peeled it from his body. Their eyes never parted, only staring in trust, in fear, in love, in mourning, in hope, in agony. Slipping from her embrace, he pulled her along to the bedroom door and opened it, shutting out the cold behind them.

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_The screaming stopped. It stopped. No relief, no release. The blood was pouring... the blood was dying. The knife that had been driven so harshly, was pulled out so gently with the shaking of a sixteen year old girl's hands. As one pair of beautiful eyes filled with pain, filled with darkness, filled with death, all he could see was how she cried over him. It had all happened so fast. It had all been so cruel, so sudden, so scary. He could hardly believe what had just happened, perhaps it wasn't real, but the only thing he knew was real, was that he would give... and had. _

_Death was a troubling thing: one moment you were living, taking life for granted, being in peace, and then... you were lying on a floor, growing cold, breathing a painful, cursed chore. He couldn't feel the blood that was soaking her lap, as she pulled, slid the knife out of his chest, crying. But, what she had thought would help, only brought up blood in spasms from his chest, that unnatural chasm, that void. It was over, he knew. _

_"I love you." _

_"Don't! You aren't going anywhere, you are going to be okay." Hearing her sob was so painful, almost worse than the drive, since he could no longer feel anything outside of her hand squeezing his. "You are going to be okay!" She wasn't convincing, he knew better, he knew that he should be dead already. That long, glistening blade had struck, stabbed him right through the center of his heart. His fate was sealed, and that's why he squeezed her hand as much as he could, because he knew that that was it. _

_"I love you, remember this." He whispered, having strength for this alone. The darkness was taking him, and soon he only knew the touch of her hand, and the sobbing of her broken voice. And in her voice, in her hardening squeeze, he could know the drastic change in her plea: hopelessness. _

_"I'll always love you." _

_And that was all he heard. _

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And then she woke up in his arms. Her eyes forced open, wide awake, breath in loss, neck upright, fingers clenched, sweat down her naked back. The covers slid down her body, and she felt the chill of the room. Underneath her, was a slumbering, quiet boy, and this, this could not be explained: how reassuring, how comforting it was. She sighed suffocatingly in relief, sobbing convulsively over him. She had been so scared, scared to the point her body froze, and now, now it was okay, because she knew that it had all been a dream. Just a dream, a horrible nightmare. Taking up a hand from the bedside, she placed it over her mouth, and sobbed.

This under her... was her angel. He was here, in her arms. And it was all a dream. He moved slightly, but slightly at that, and was happy at peace. So she lay back down, her tears being dried with the cool night air, and slid her arms around him, resting her hot head in his narrow chest.

Yes, he wasn't much of a man yet, but that was okay, since everything of his was adored time over by her, this lover of his. She could wonder why dreams were like this, hurting you when you were the happiest, but, it was only a dream, a dream to be dismissed and ignored and forgotten.

"I love you sweetie." She gleamed in happiness.

He only moaned, half asleep and content. This moan was very audible, revealing his voice, revealing his tone, revealing who he was. And now, she couldn't sleep, she couldn't' relax, she couldn't say that she had just had a dream, because getting back up, looking down at him, actually seeing how he was, his height, the fact his chest was not narrow, that his body was not that of a boy's, that he wasn't just a dream, just a nightmare: she saw the truth.

Screaming, screaming in her hand, she sobbed, fell onto the bed away from him, crying, so scared out of her mind and numb with pain. "No!" She muffled it with her cries, "No." He slept, stirred only once, a quiet sleeper, as she cried and sobbed and moaned over the truth. He was here, naked in her arms, not her baby, not her lover, but Eddy. And she had given herself to him.

Face was lifted from the sheets, her bare face, mingled in tears and snot, she looked up at her hand clenching one of the disheveled blankets. And she saw her left hand, the ring finger, and the two rings garnering it. Both were of silver, one plain, and one beautiful. She knew that the plain was the result of the burning yet so pure love of a sixteen year old boy, matured well beyond his years and looking toward the future, with her. And the beautiful one... she knew belonged to the love of a twenty-two year old man, who's only desire was to be happy with her, and not dead without her. And so had she dug herself in a six foot grave...

But her face was lifted even farther up, and she saw who lingered over her, staring with interest, betrayal, despair, at her. She saw his eyes, his beautiful eyes, looking down, witnessing her sin. If only she could have moved, then she could have covered herself with the blanket. But he saw her clearly, he saw right through her.

"No, don't look at me Double D! I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was doing..." she had lied, she had spit out anything she could think of, sobbing, bleeding her eyes onto the bed. She gripped the blanket, and spread it over herself desperately, glancing over at Eddy. "I'm sorry Double D, I... don't know what to do."

He only stared, glaring at her. His eyes never to part, never to give up, never to turn away. She could feel the weight of him on her, even though she pressed her face into the mattress. So, she got up and stared at him, "What do you want me to do? Bring you back? I can't! I can't! I tried! I tried to fight! Do you want to me kill myself!? No! You would never want me to do that, but look, look what you're driving me to! I love you. I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. I should have known better, I should've listened. I should've ran as far as I could away from you so she wouldn't have gotten jealous. But no! I didn't believe him, I thought he was crazy. But now look who's crazy. That slut, that stupid girl, that dumb, man-stealing, Veronica Kanker. She's crazy." The expression on his face never changed there in the dark, his eyes only burned with love toward her. "Stop looking at me! Please! Stop looking at me!"

She crept away from the bedroom, and came back two minutes after. Eddy never had awoken, never had known she was gone. He most certainly did not know why she had left, or what she brought back with her. She collapsed at the side of the bed, and held his face, begging the night to never end, so he wouldn't have to wake up for the 8,137th day of his miserable life to find out the truth. She wished he could stay in his peaceful slumber, and never know... how she had chosen who she'd rather love, and how much she could stand. Her eyes met once more with the vision before her, her lover, her savior, and that would be the last time. She pet Eddy's face, wiping her fingers through his hair, pulling up the blanket over his warm body, doting over him in tears and sorrow:

"I'm sorry."

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It was a beautiful, cool morning that the sun would complement, that it would meet. A few billowy clouds were all that would obstruct the sun's brilliant rays. Planes soared, created their own clouds, meeting the sun on their own terms. The sun rose quickly, beaming on all things green, and a one grey building. The planes soared above these, silent and peaceful, none there knowing the woman who was walking down an ugly hall, stepping away from this window's light and going into a glum hallway which she paced across in a formal march. Room 616 was where she was going, with her hair up, dressed in whitewash, prepared for her monotonous job. When she entered this room though, she was met with the overpowering, rude smell of smoke before she looked to the wide floor. It was the floor, which made her gasp and run from the large pile of ashes. But she stopped in the hallway, no longer fearing to call a fire alarm, seeing that the flames had consumed in theirself. Leave it alone. She came back, the smoke still floating around and taking itself into her nostrils. There were two piles, now that she looked. One, of wood, small and insignificant. A single match lay a foot away from it. And next to this pile was a much larger mound of ashes, with the outline of a human. The woman put her hand over her mouth to try to stop from inhaling the burnt flesh. She couldn't understand why or how- she couldn't understand. This was beyond her, beyond all of them. Beyond Johnny's now lifeless ashes.

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The impossible, was not understandable. The impossible was discouraging. The impossible, was all he had left. This was the chance for life, and he had to work for it, fear it, fight. Fighting for love was what he was doing, as cheesy as that sounds, he was. It is harder to think about it, being so real. Some people didn't have to fight this hard for something so seemingly simple as living, just inhale, go through motions, exhale. But, it was this way. And, it seemed so unfair. But, sleeping here, in her bed, made him understand how lucky he really was. He had gotten by on a string, and made it: life was guaranteed. She was not next to him, but he knew that her hand was garnered with his ring. This was all he needed to keep him alive.

Why did he deserve someone who loved that deeply? He was so lucky that she could get past her pain and her agony, but he knew he did not deserve her. He had screwed up, and he knew that. So maybe, he finally had realized, when so close to running his car off the bridge that was on the way to his work, that he shouldn't have her. Maybe they would be alone for the rest of her life. Maybe they would never stop mourning. Maybe that was the way it was to be, for ever. But no! No! She was his, and he was hers, and there was nothing that was going to change that.

He reached over a hand, and it fell onto the cool sheets and soft mattress, so he rubbed over, sliding his hand as he went and came to her body at the other end of the bed. He drew his hand up her back, feeling the creases and coming up, to land his hand on her round, chilly shoulder. Rubbing up, he was against her, and his head was filled with smiles and glistening eyes of violent love and powerful ecstasy. His heart was bursting in joy, as his arms encompassed her, as he took her in to warm her, as he almost snickered in happiness, so pleasantly charmed. As he took her in his arms, he knew that he could go on, that life would be alright- at least bearable. He knew that he could see his son grow up, that he could remember that his friends died, but never left. He could live to joke on Kevin, to work at his stupid job, to wipe those tears that might never leave, to marry the love he thought he would never have.

And he put his arms around her.

One thing changes all that you think, because thinking doesn't mean anything. Thinking is not guaranteed. It is not peace. It is not life.

He felt the cold fluid on this side of the bed by her, as his elbow landed in the sheet. He could feel no warmth. The blankets were damp, the room wreaked, the shivers of his body were telling him that something, something was something here. The only word to describe it was- cold.

Cold. She was cold, and now he knew she was cold. The shivers, the gnawing pain, that burn that struck his heart with a ferocity of a million monsters bashing and bruising his spirit. He leapt, and gripped her quick, pulling her on her back and, not even knowing he was crying, touching her face, squeezing her arms, shaking her, screaming... "VERONICA!" He pet her face, not knowing that he was spreading her blood all over her and unto him. He shook her, touching her neck with trembling hands, rubbing her for whichever wound she had which was making her bleed like this, with all this blood. He kept screaming, not even knowing what he was saying, just yelling at her to wake up. He took her torso, running his palms over her damp abdomen, then up her body to her arms. He shook her, shaking the bed, and tearing his hands into her cramping, stiff palms.

He heard the sharp clank of her ticket. The knife fell onto the wooden floor, off the side of the bed, and numbed him in fear. And he could hardly feel, hardly move, but he felt her bloody wrists, and the wide voids where her delicate skin was once so whole.

"NO!" He cried, the truth shooting him in the skull. He knew better than to think, to dream, to sleep away his problems. He knew better... now. He knew he didn't deserve her, and now he knew he couldn't have her. "No! Wake up! Say something! Yell at me! Okay, I won't marry you! Just... please, SAY SOMETHING TO ME!!! Veronica! Please, you can't leave me. I need you to stay. Everyone leaves, you can't leave. I need you. I need you. Wake up." And with this last syllable, he lost his voice to the ache, to the pain.

The room would only hear him sniffling in her chest, shaking, so cold.

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At 4526 on highway 65, you might have been able to look out the window of your car, as it went down the highway, for whatever reason you were here, and you would have seen a house on the side of the highway. It would be a quiet house, for only one more minute. As the sun beat down upon it in a blinding manner, as the grass was gently pushed in the breeze of the air, as the paint chipped and the rust built up. As the time sped behind and before you, as you couldn't change ONE single thing about your life or the lives of any body else, you wouldn't hear the bullet. That one bullet that ended Eddy's miserable life. You wouldn't hear it, but his family would. And there would be only one explanation to the seven year old boy who had never done anything wrong, or the man who had tried to give him hospitality and friendship, regardless of their past: an almost unreadable collection of frantic lines of despair and desperate pleads on a crinkled, bloody paper.

_This is not my fault. Im sorry. I didn' ' t give up, she did Its okay with me Now we are all together, and nothing will change that._

Even though not many people from that little cul-de-sac in Peach Creek lived on after those few days in one hot summer, a few had a distinct picture in their scarred memories of three innocent, happy, young friends living in that promising time of their lives, and looking ahead towards a bright future.

The End

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A red-sleeved book fell to the cement, away from his shaking limbs and lay there in the sun. What was read was unexplainable, awing, horrible, the best and the worst book he had ever read. He looked at it on the sidewalk, at the feet of his three sitting friends. They were looking at him, trying to keep themselves from shedding any of the tears or pain that was filling their eyes and hearts. He fell to his knees, scraping them both through his jeans, and looking at his friends in the grass, silence overtaking everyone of them. The end of the road was before them, and their life between them. They looked at that book, with the pages mangled on the ground, and the boy grabbed it and gripped it to rip out page after page in anger, and screaming. The paper fell on the cement, as he just tore away, screaming more and more, so mad, so rightfully mad.

"Eddy stop!" His soft friend finally found the spirit to speak up. His other friend stood up, wiping his eyes and taking the book from him, to throw it in the road as far as he could up the street. They needed to get that book away from them, because it was a monster, it was an intrusion, it was a warning. Eddy fluttered his eyes to dry his shameful tears, and braved to look up at scolding Edd, crying Ed, and silent Veronica. They sat on the grass, numbed and bewildered.

"Why would he make up that stuff guys? Is that gonna happen to us?" Ed's lower lip trembled, his eyes pouring out on his red lids. Edd pat his back, holding in his grief and staring at Veronica.

"No, no it will not."

His words were reassuring, but broken by the call of one so familiar, what they thought was familiar, but now was feared. All of their eyes fell on Johnny in the road, picking up the hard cover and looking at them. His presence looming... from where he stood some thirty yards away. Eddy clenched his fists, and ran after him.

"YOU STUPID JERK!" He screamed, grabbing Johnny's thin neck and shaking him insanely. His friends ran over to stop him, and pulled him from the demon they knew was only a demon and nothing else. As he recovered from his attack, and Eddy stopped tugging away from Ed and Veronica's grip, Edd spoke up and spoke loud.

"Why?"

Johnny looked at him, then down at Plank in his arms. His fearful, weak, confused word filled their ears, and they waited, all wanting to know, "Why?"

The younger kid, in his tee shirt and holding the pet of his youth close, looked at them with softened eyes, in remorse and in pity. But he didn't know how to answer Edd, or any of them. They stood before him, safe feet away, and the breeze was the only one muttering any words.

"Why did you write this about us all? How could you have wrote something so... terrible. You don't know how much this hurts... How real it seemed, how much you got each and every one of our feelings and put them in this book for everyone to read, how do you know us so well? How did you know that I love Veronica enough to die for her, she didn't even know that until now. How did you know that Ed and May get along so well? He was trying to keep this a secret from us because he didn't think we'd understand. How did you know that Eddy would have... faltered... and would refuse to help Ed in his time of need? These all haven't happened, but we know that... in those situations... we would have done the same thing. Everything, everything." He wiped his eyes, glancing at each one of his friends, then back at the despondent boy in front of them. "How could you have known? Where...?"

Now Johnny could speak, "From inside me that was brave enough to write the truth about you, about the cul-de-sac, about me and Plank."

"What are you talking about!?!" Eddy shouted again, as Johnny clenched the book close to his chest.

He shouted over Eddy, trying, pleading to explain himself, with hurt in his eyes, "We aren't supposed to grow up! We have these souls that will be forever just kids. Can you see us growing up? No! This is the way I saw things, and I don't know how, but I saw this. Plank showed me what is going to happen, and I wrote it, because I knew you wouldn't listen to me if I just told you, but a book... you'd listen to a book." He looked down at the red cover.

"NO! That stupid hunk of wood can't say anything!!!" Eddy shouted, trying to tug at Ed's grip.

"Johnny, you aren't serious? You believe that this is what really is going to happen to us?" Veronica asked, speaking up and shaking. She couldn't help but grab Edd's hand and squeeze it as hard as she could, scared. Their young enemy nodded his head solemnly and Eddy jumped forward to be pulled back by his friends again.

"Eddy stop!" Ed cried, hugging him close. "I don't want to die Johnny! Make it wrong!"

"I can't, if I could, I would."

"Oh shut up! You wouldn't! YOU are the cause of it in the book!" Veronica shouted. These words of hers alarmed her friends, and herself. Did she really believe the garbage Johnny was telling them? Did any of them? Was it possible that Johnny did know what would happen to each and every one of them? Was it true?

"Veronica, he's lying, don't believe him. This is impossible," Edd gripped her hand, pleading, because if none of them believed it, somehow that would make it better.

"No it isn't, and in two years I'm going to become a drug addict. Marie Kanker will try again for Eddy. Veronica will admit the stubborn truth that she loves you, Rolf will be told to find a sacrifice for the moon festival, and everything will fall into place perfectly with those things. It will, whether you know it or not. It will all happen, because Plank never lies to me. But if you just believe me, you could stop it from happening, you could. Just like in the book, you could stop it from happening, by believing me."

Eddy finally got free, and scrambled onto Johnny, bashing his head with his fists, and ripping Plank from his arms and throwing the wood down with a blunt impact. He punched Johnny's face, making blood his blood mark and tatter his face.. "No! This won't happen! We aren't going to die! None of us are! YOU CAN'T SAY WE ARE!!!!" His desperate, angered shouts were so loud and afraid, with blow after blow to fight for his plead. .

Ed and Veronica grabbed him and brought him up, all three crying heavily at last. Edd looked at them, then left Johnny to help himself. The awkward boy wiped his bloody nose, and sat up, staring up at Eddy from the cement, and speaking in indignation and self-righteous confidence in every fact.

"Go ahead, don't believe me. But when you remember how your fingers were wrinkled in Edd's blood, how Ed's coffin couldn't be open at the funeral, while you wake to find Veronica's wrists slashed open and you are pulling the trigger to a gun at our own head, remember that you were wrong, that you thought I was crazy, and that if you had** just listened **to me, you could have stopped it from happening. You remember that, you ALL remember that you bastards."

It is true, you can't change one thing about your life when you've already lived it out. You can't go into the past and change this or that for your benefit. That part of your life is already gone, and there is nothing you can do for it. All you can change is how it is going to end.

_Two years.  
_

**The End**


End file.
